A warning to those who have been driving unregistered vehicles: The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is bringing back the strict implementation of the ‘no registration, no travel policy’ after a review of data revealed that 24.7 million motor vehicles out of a total of 38.3 million on the road are classified as delinquent.
That’s a whopping 65% of vehicles that either have expired registration or were never registered to begin—and the total collectibles from registration payments and penalties amount to P37.10 billion. These figures could be higher still, because the review did not include data past April 2022, at which point the LTO adopted the use of the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS).
“Yung included sa report na ito ng delinquent motor vehicles ay yung mga sasakyan na based sa aming record ay more than one year ng hindi nare-renew ang registration,” said LTO chief Atty Vigor Mendoza II. “Hindi pa kasama dito yung mga less than a year na hindi naka-renew ng registration.”
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In the rankings of regions with the most number of delinquent motor vehicles, the National Capital Region came first with 4.1 million unregistered vehicles. Region III and Region IV-A followed with 3.3 million and 2.7 million, respectively.
Region VI and Region VII in the Visayas each have around 1.8 million, while Region VIII has roughly 758,000. Finally, in Mindanao, Region XI recorded 1.2 million unregistered vehicles, followed by Region XII with 1.1 million, then Region IX and Region X with almost one million each.
Categorizing the delinquent motor vehicles by type, unregistered motorcycles made up 20.15 million of the nationwide total, translating to a revenue loss of P18.4 billion. This is followed by four-wheeled vehicles, with P18.4 billion to be collected from 4.01 million delinquent registrations. Trucks and buses contribute around 490,000 to the tally of unregistered vehicles, amounting to P3.25 billion in pending collections.
Of the P37.10 billion collectible, P12.36 billion will go to national government.
Apart from tending to fail roadworthiness inspections, Mendoza said that delinquent motor vehicles do not have insurance coverage—not even compulsory third party liability. “In other words, these motor vehicles are threats to road safety,” the official stressed. “We have to be very strict in implementing the laws on land transportation not only to make it fair to the law-abiding motor vehicle owners but also for the welfare of the road users.
“Kailangan nating maghigpit tungkol dito hindi lamang sa aspeto ng revenue losses sa gobyerno kung hindi dahil sa aspeto ng road safety, dahil malamang karamihan sa mga delinquent motor vehicles na ito ay may roadworthiness issues.
“Hindi natin papayagan ito. May obligasyon ang bawat vehicle owner na irehistro ang kanilang mga sasakyan at ang tututukan natin ngayon ay ang strict compliance sa obligasyong ito.”
For its part, the LTO is still dealing with a backlog in its vehicle plate production, stating in its latest update that it may not finish printing some 13 million motorcycle plates until 2025. Owners of registered motor vehicles with pending plates are advised to use temporary plates that follow the LTO’s specifications.
