Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Vigor Mendoza II is “very confident” that the temporary restraining order (TRO) on its driver’s license card supply deal will be lifted, but says it already has temporary solutions planned should the injunction continue.
The agency was forced to stop the processing and delivery of driver’s licenses in mid-August after AllCard, which lost out in the card supply contract bidding, contested the decision of the Department of Transporation (DOTr) to award the contract to another company. The winning company had proposed a production cost of P42 per card, versus AllCard’s bid of P38.22 per piece.
A TRO on the awarding of the contract was then issued by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.
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What will happen to driver’s license processing if the TRO is not lifted?
During the DOTr 2024 budget briefing with the House Committee on Appropriations on Monday, September 4, Mendoza said that in the event the TRO does not lapse after the 20-day period on September 6, the LTO will be “constrained to extend the licenses of our motorists.”
“We are very confident na yung TRO ay hindi matutuloy, but we are now putting in place the electronic licensing,” explained Mendoza. “And of course, ang pinakamadali sa amin ay yung extension, because not everybody yet has the electronic licensing.”
When the agency first reported the license card shortage earlier this year, it extended the validity of driver’s licenses expiring from April 24 onwards until October 31. Electronic driver’s licenses, which may be accessed via the Land Transportation Managagement System or LTMS Portal, were subsequently rolled out in July.
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Asked if a 12-month extension of driver’s licenses is not possible, Mendoza initially said: “We’ll get guidance from DOTr, kasi may implication ito sa revenue-generating capacity ng LTO.
“Pinag-aaralan namin yan, and by next week, makakapagbigay kami ng rekomendasyon sa DOTr as to the next steps to be done [if the TRO is not lifted]. Binabalanse lang namin yung convenience ng ating motorista as well as yung aming mandate to generate funds for the government.”
UPDATE, September 5, 3:45pm: Later in the session, Mendoza confirmed that the LTO will be granting a one-year extended validity for expiring driver’s licenses.
Currently, temporary paper driver’s licenses are printed out by the agency—in the back of the official receipt (OR) as with the example above—with some motorists opting to have their copies laminated. Mendoza said one of the solutions they are considering is to have the back page of the OR stamped ‘extended’ “para wala nang dagdag-print out, wala nang dagdag trabaho para sa ating mga motorista.”
We took this to mean that the ORs of driver’s licenses will be stamped, but a subsequent announcement by the agency on September 6 said it “will study putting a stamp on the Official Receipt (OR) Certificate of Registration (CR) of vehicle owners to indicate that the validity of their driver’s licenses is extended.”
“We will be disseminating this information sa lahat ng region by next week depending on the outcome of the Wednesday hearing on the TRO.”
We’ll keep you posted for updates.
NOTE: This article was updated on September 7, 2023.
