LTO commits to clear motorcycle plates backlog by end of 2024

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Wednesday committed to clear the backlog on the distribution of motorcycle license plates by the end of the year.

At the Senate Committee on Services hearing, panel chairman Senator Raffy Tulfo asked the LTO if it can address the backlog within the year as he raised a concerned citizen’s complaint about waiting for his motorcycle plate since 2020.

In response, LTO Executive Director Atty. Greg Pua Jr. said that while the agency’s commitment to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is to “finish all the backlogs —including motorcycle and motor vehicle plates —by June 2025, we will consider this motorcycles [plates].”

“We’re doing everything po para matapos this year,” Pua said.

Last month, the LTO extended the deadline for the prohibition against improvised and temporary plates for motor vehicles but reiterated that those who already have the proper plates should have them installed.

The deadline was moved by three months to December 31, 2024, from the earlier announced September 1, 2024.

In May, the LTO said there was a backlog of 11.4 million motorcycle plates from the previous administration.

To address the issue, the agency produced one million motorcycle plates, reducing the backlog to approximately 10.3 million.

“Part of the production is to address the backlog, while we are addressing the current demand,” Pua said.

The LTO official said that bottlenecks in the distribution of license plates are mostly encountered at dealership level.

“In that case, shino-show cause ang dealer kung bakit hindi na-distribute ang plaka,” Pua said.

(In that case, there is a show-cause order to the dealer as to why the plates have not been distributed.)

Data from LTO showed that it has issued a total of 3,940 Show Cause Orders (SCOs) on motor vehicle dealers across the country for failure to release license plates, Official Receipt/Certificate of Registration (OR/CR) within the 11-day prescribed time.

The penalty in relation to the failure of motor vehicle dealers’ failure to release license plates and LTO documents is up to P1 million, depending on the seriousness of the offense.—RF, GMA Integrated News