MANILA – The Land Transportation Office (LTO) extended the validity of driver’s licenses expiring this month up to April 2, 2024, following the effectivity of a writ of preliminary injunction issued by the court.
Vigor Mendoza II, the LTO chief and assistant transportation secretary, said the plastic cards remaining in its inventory would only be enough to cover the backlog of undelivered driver’s licenses until June so he issued a memorandum circular on Nov. 8 to address the shortage.
Under the memo, all on-hand plastic driver’s license card supplies will only be used for overseas Filipino workers, foreign driver’s license conversion, diplomats and backlogs for this year.
There will also be no bulk printing of backlogs and the printing of a driver’s license can only be done in the LTO office where it was renewed.
The agency earlier gave a six- to seven-month extension for driver’s licenses set to expire from April to June.
The LTO reminded motorists that the schedule of renewal for driver’s licenses expiring on April 1 to April 30 should be completed by Nov. 6 this year.
For those expiring on May 1 to May 31, the renewal should be not later than Nov. 30, while motorists with licenses set to expire on June 1 to June 30 should renew them on or before Dec. 31.
Motorists who renewed their licenses that were set to expire between April and June this year were issued temporary paper licenses.
Enough supply
At a press briefing on Oct. 5, Mendoza announced the LTO had enough supply of plastic cards to start clearing backlogs for the month, lifting its earlier order to extend the renewal period for licenses that expired from April 1 to April 30.
The agency’s plan to clear its backlog, however, was halted when the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 215 issued an injunction stopping the delivery of plastic cards by the winning bidder Banner Plasticard Inc.
The granted injunction was from a petition of Allcard Inc., which was disqualified from the bidding for the supply deal, despite having the lowest bid of P176.85 million, far from the winning bid of P240.1 million. (Dexter Cabalza © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
