Ever since the new Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief took over, there’s been nothing but optimism regarding the issues the agency is currently facing. Even the Department of Transportation (DOTr) secretary Jaime Bautista himself said that the plates and driver’s license backlogs would be resolved within the year.
Things have taken a turn for the worse, though. Reports started coming out that the Quezon City Regional Trial Court had issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the awarding of the contract to the agency’s new supplier of blank plastic cards for driver’s licenses. Until the TRO is lifted, the delivery and processing of licenses will be put on hold.
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The TRO will cost the LTO at least 20 days of the aforementioned stoppage. The agency, however, will be attending a hearing on August 22, during which it will have the chance to show the court that the TRO has no basis. For now, it still has its eyes set on delivering one million plastic cards in the first 60 days, or by the end of September.
LTO official statement on temporary restraining order
“Certainly, this is a major setback on our goal of addressing the backlog on the physical driver’s license which we target to complete by September this year. The backlog is around 1.7 million as of this month—and mounting every day considering the number of applications we are receiving for new and renewal of driver’s licenses on a daily basis.
“Right now, we are consulting and coordinating with the Department of Transportation, particularly on the aspect of cushioning the impact of the court’s decision on our clients.
“We hope that this issue would be addressed in the soonest possible time because it is the Filipino people who would certainly suffer from a prolonged legal battle.”
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Timeline of events
The LTO first announced the impending shortage way back in April earlier this year. To cope, it extended the validity of all driver’s licenses expiring from April 24 onwards to October 31. As of this writing, that’s that extension has not been adjusted to account for this new cause of delay.
The agency then rolled out the digital driver’s licenses—read more on that here if you aren’t familiar yet—that would serve as alternatives while it still waits for the new plastic cards to be procured and produced.
Fast-forward to July, Atty. Vigor Mendoza was appointed as the new LTO chief after Jay Art Tugade stepped down from his post. On his first day of office, the new chief turned over 5,000 cards. Bautista doubled down on this by saying the backlogs would be resolved within the year.
However, on August 16, reports started coming out that the Quezon City RTC had issued a TRO on the awarding of the contract for the supply of blank plastic cards for the license. This came after AllCard, a losing bidder, contested the DOTr’s decision to award the contract to another company.
According to a few reports including this one from Inquirer.net, the DOTr awarded the contract to the bidder that proposed a production cost of P42 per card. AllCard, meanwhile, would have been able to make the plastic cards at P38.22 per piece. AllCard also alleged that the DOTr had not been very transparent with its decision in choosing a supplier.
What happens next
The next developments will come after the hearing scheduled on August 22, 2023. The TRO will last 20 days, so there’s be a chance it could be lifted earlier in case the decision made on the 22nd favors the LTO. However, the agency has refused to comment on whether it will request the court to preemptively revoke the restraining order and said that “the greater public interest should prevail over the business interest of one or two.”
We’re not sure either what could come out of the upcoming hearing, but all we know is that these delays won’t do any good for the LTO’s current backlogs. In any case, we’ll bring you more as we have them, folks.
