Land Transportation Office (LTO) Assistant Secretary Edgar C. Galvante said the agency would need at least a P2.5-billion budget to produce 18 million new motorcycle plates by next year.
According to Galvante, the LTO has already manufactured at least three million motorcycle plates. These have already been distributed to different regions through its district offices or via accredited dealers.
However, due to the huge backlog and the limited capacity of the agency's plant, Galvante said they are looking at tapping other facilities to help manufacture the remaining license plates, particularly for units registered in 2017 and earlier.
"Kung maibibigay iyong kaukulang pondo para rito, sa palagay namin magagawa po iyon . Dahil hindi lang po ang LTO plate-making plant ang gagawa noong plaka kundi iyon na rin pong maaring manalo na mag-supply para dito sa ibang plaka (If the appropriate budget will be given, then we think we can meet the target. It will not be just the LTO plant that will produce the plates but also other suppliers)," Galvante explained.
"Ang estimate namin nito mga close to 10 million ang ipagagawa namin sa labas (We estimate that around 10 million plates will be outsourced)," he added.
Galvante noted that the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19)pandemic has adversely affected the printing of motorcycle plates since the expected arrival of plate-making equipment was delayed.
"Dahil sa pandemya, iyong mga inhinyero from Germany at Netherlands na mag-iinstall ng dagdag na equipment ay hindi nakarating. Ito ay nag-cause ng isang malaking delay sa dami ng motorcycle plates na iimprenta ng LTO araw-araw (Due to the pandemic, the engineers from Germany and the Netherlands who were supposed to install the extra equipment failed to arrive. This caused a huge delay in our daily production of motorcycle plates)," he said.
The LTO chief said they already included the P2.5 billion fund in their budget request.
Meanwhile, Galvante clarified that the production of plates for four-wheel vehicles was not affected. He said that it's up to date, except for those who applied for replacement plates.