The decision of the Department of Transportation to centralize all procurements with a budget of P50 million and above has resulted in the shortage of the plastic cards being used in the printing of driver’s license, a top official of the Land Transportation Office disclosed on Thursday, April 20.
LTO chief JayArt Tugade said that after an inventory was conducted in November when he assumed the post, they found out that the supply of the plastic cards of the LTO is already at a critical level.
During the inventory conducted, he disclosed that the supply that the LTO has would be enough until the last week of April this year.
“However, sometime in January (2023) when we were ready to procure. We received a department order whereby we were instructed that all procurements involving P50 million and above shall be conducted by the DOTr Central Office,” said Tugade in a press briefing.
LTO is under the DOTr.
He was referring to the DOTr Special Order 2023-024 issued on Jan. 25 which stipulates that all procurement above P50 million should be done by the DOTr Central Office.
The procurement of 5.2 million pieces of plastic cards, which will be enough for one year, costs P240 million.
LTO officials said they could not answer the reason behind the special order.
Shortage
In the press briefing, Tugade said the plastic card supply shortage is now being felt across the country.
“There are offices in the National Capital Region and other areas with no more plastic cards,” said Tugade.
Amid statements that the LTO should have prepared for this, Tugade insinuated that the blame could not be passed on them.
He emphasized that as soon as the inventory was done in November, they were ready to procure as early as December last year.
“However, when the SO (Special Order) was issued in January (25), we were instructed basically to stop all procurement activities,” said Tugade.
What happens now?
As an immediate but temporary measure, Tugade said they will allow the use of the Official Receipt of the driver’s license as an alternative until such time that the issue is properly addressed.
“This is the immediate but temporary solution so far to address the shortage of plastic cards. We have already met with law enforcement units and agencies like the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) about this,” said Tugade.
In the meeting, Tugade said all those that are deputized by the LTO to enforce traffic laws to accept the OR of the driver’s license as a temporary driver’s license, provided that it has complete details, unique QR code and with screenshots of the front and back of the driver’s license card.
The screenshots of the front and back of the supposed driver’s license will be provided by the LTO offices which have no plastic cards by printing it at the back of the OR.
He added that all regional offices of the LTO were also informed through a memorandum about the matter.
“We commiserate with the people on this predicament but once we received plastics cards and once the DOTR procured this already, we are ready to print and distribute the plastic driver’s license,” said Tugade.