The Land Transportation Office (LTO) moved the deadline on the prohibition against the use of improvised and temporary plates for motor vehicle owners to Dec. 31 this year.
LTO chief, Assistant Secretary Vigor D. Mendoza II made the announcement on Sunday, Sept. 1, amid requests and concerns over the availability of the licensed plates.
Supposedly, the start of the prohibition is on Sept. 1 this year. The prohibition is stipulated in a memorandum circular issued by the LTO for the motor vehicle owners to install their license plates and the money-making modus relating to the use of improvised and temporary plates.
Mendoza, however, stressed that the deadline extension should not be an excuse for motor vehicle owners who have already available license plates to install them in their motor vehicles.
‘We ask the motorists to claim and install their respective license plates as soon as they are available either in the car dealerships and replacement plates in our offices,” said Mendoza.
Mendoza also emphasized that there is no longer a backlog of license plates on four-wheel vehicles.
What is left, he said, is the backlog for motorcycle plates which he said will be addressed by June next year.
The LTO earlier issued a memorandum circular against the use of improvised and temporary plates after an initial investigation revealed that registered owners of vehicles, especially the newly-bought ones, are not claiming their license plates from motor vehicle dealerships.
Thousands of license plates remain unclaimed in various motor vehicle dealerships and in a meeting with car dealers last month, the car dealers said their clients are unable to claim the plates despite their repeated message to them.
Mendoza said the installation of license plates are also the LTO contribution to the crime prevention measures especially that some vehicles are being used in criminal activities.
Mendoza stressed that the deadline extension will not diminish their effort to aggressively come up with measures to deliver all the unclaimed license plates to the rightful owners.
He said he already instructed the LTO Regional Directors and District Office heads to coordinate with the local government units for the distribution of the license plates.