Millions of motorcycles continue to ply the road without license plates due to the delay in their release.
According to a Saksi report by Mariz Umali, this was the finding of the Commission on Audit in its 2023 audit report on the Land Transporation Office (LTO).
As of December 2023, COA said LTO has a backlog of around nine million license plates of motorcycles.
“Moreover, a huge accumulated balance of 9,115,374 pieces of motorcycle plate backlogs for CY 2023 and prior years were noted,” a portion of the COA report stated.
This is apart from the 1,696,771 pairs of motor vehicle replacement plates amounting to P763,546,950.00 “which have been paid in CY 2015 renewal of registration” which were “still not produced and delivered to various regional offices for distribution to the owners of motor vehicles,” the COA added.
LTO said there has been a considerable decrease in the backlog from the previous 13 million pairs.
“Ang naging sanhi po ng problema at backlog na ito, noong 2014 po nagkaroon po ng problema sa bidding ng LTO, nagkaroon po ng kasuhan, nagkaroon pa po ng TRO. Naayos lang po ito sometime 2018, 2019 and then another problem came po. Nagkaroon naman po ng TRO sa Manila so nagpatong-patong po ang ating backlog,” said LTO executive director Greg Pua Jr.
The LTO assured that motorists who have not yet received their license plates will not be apprehended as long as they can present their sales invoice and official receipt-certificate of registration.
“Noong August 2023 po, nag-issue po ang LTO ng memorandum on what to do sa mga walang plaka po. Hindi po ito huhulihin,” Pua added
LTO vowed to fix the backlog problems of vehicle plates by June 2025.
“Nag-procure po ang LTO and DOTR ng finished plate na po para abay ang production. Habang gumagawa po yung aming planta [ng mga plaka], gumagawa rin naman po yung winning bidder po,” he added.
The Commission on Audit advised the LTO to talk to the Department of Budget and Management for the speedy release of the budget to hasten the procurement and distribution of replacement plates and backlog motorcyle plates. —Jiselle Anne Casucian/LDF, GMA Integrated News
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