President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. hailed the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for the successful implementation of its various programs and policies in achieving a zero backlog of license plates.

In a sectoral meeting with the officials of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the LTO at the Malacañan Palace, President Marcos noted the programs of the transportation agencies has improved compared from last year as far as the issuance of license plates are concerned.

“We have finally paid attention to the problem. So, I’m glad to see that the motor vehicles – ‘yung four-wheeled vehicles were okay,” President Marcos told the transportation officials, referring to the zero backlog of the license plates for motor vehicles.

LTO chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza told President Marcos that they have already addressed the backlog for the current demand of license plates except for its distribution. He said most of the license plates are in the possession of dealers.

As far as the license cards are concerned, Mendoza said the supply has now gone back to normal after the injunction order issued by a regional trial court that stopped the delivery of 5.2 million cards has been lifted.

Of the figure, Mendoza said that 3.6 million cards have already been delivered as of April 30. “We have the remaining cards. Out of the 3.6 million delivered, we have still on hand 1.6 million. So, the supply of the cards is continuing right now and we continue to deliver it downstairs to our district offices,” he said.

Mendoza said the remaining balance from the 5.2 million is not enough to cover the entire 4.01 million backlog. But he said this prompted them to bid out the remaining supply cards for this year of 6.5 million on an agency-to-agency contract with the APO Production Unit, which committed to start delivering the cards by June 3. PND