LTO reminds public: Don’t use unauthorized commemorative license plates

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Friday, Dec. 23, warned the public not to use commemorative license plates on their motor vehicles without permission or they risk facing fines and other consequences.

Assistant Secretary Jose Arturo “Jay Art” Tugade, LTO chief, said that the LTO does not endorse the use of commemorative license plates on either private or public cars and urged people to take them off if they are still in use.

He asserted that no motor vehicle should bear illegal commemorative plates as it is banned by the office.

“The current administration of the LTO has not recommended commemorative license plates to be issued to motor vehicle owners, thus, its use is therefore prohibited. If vehicle owners are caught by law enforcers still using commemorative plates whose effectivity dates have already expired, they will be apprehended and fined,” Tugade said in a statement.

According to Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Joint Administrative Circular No. 2014-01, operating a motor vehicle with an unauthorized license plate is punishable by a P5,000 fine and the confiscation of the unauthorized plate.

Tugade said commemorative license plates should not be utilized to terrorize law enforcement officers or prevent them from apprehending people for moving offences.

The LTO said that commemorative license plates are those whose use is limited to the observance and/or commemoration of events that bear national significance, and with a validity of only one year as approved by the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

The problem arose after a Facebook group page called "Philippine National Police Academy - Justice, Integrity, Service" published a public advisory with a picture of a car with a commemorative license plate bearing the letters "PNPA," which appear to refer to the Philippine National Police Academy, that was allegedly shared with the group by a concerned citizen.

The Facebook page's administrators issued a public warning about the use of commemorative plates, badges, emblems, and stickers by unscrupulous individuals who are neither directly affiliated with nor a graduate of PNPA and who are in violation of traffic and other laws, the group said in its advisory.

Tudage said “the present LTO administration did not recommend the approval of any commemorative license plate that bears the letters ‘PNPA’ and no such license plate was approved by the DOTr and endorsed to the LTO.”