Driver’s license expiration coming up?
No need to rush for a renewal because the Land Transportation Office (LTO) has set an automatic extension for licenses that expired from April 3, 2023 onwards until April 1, 2024 in the wake of a legal battle that has hindered the LTO from receiving plastic cards for the licenses.
With the production on hold, LTO Chairman Vigor Mendoza has confirmed the extension will be valid for one year until April 2, 2024 or until the plastic card shortage has been addressed (subject to a separate memorandum)—whichever comes first.
No penalties will be given to motorists with expired licenses within the time frame.
Since April, the LTO has been issuing paper-based licenses to cope with the plastic card shortage with over 1.7 million backlogs.
It can be recalled that the validity of driver’s licenses was already extended to October 31 for the same reason.
Also read: Driver's License Printed on Paper? What to Do Next, According to LTO
Why is there a delay in the driver’s license production?
The contract for the plastic cards was previously awarded to Banner Plastic Card Inc., with a bid of PHP219 million.
This was in contrast to the PHP177 million bid from its competitor, AllCard Inc., which was disqualified due to alleged delays in another project involving the central bank and other agencies.
However, a Quezon City court argued that the reasons for AllCard's disqualification were not verified.
Because of this, the same court imposed a 20-day restraining order (TRO) against the delivery of plastic cards following concerns raised by a losing bidder in the procurement process. This ended on September 6.
Mendoza noted the challenges posed by the TRO.
"Kung ili-lift na ng hukuman ang TRO, that would free up the cards. Pero kung hindi, maiipit talaga tayo. So in anticipation of the worst case scenario and our discussions with Congress, papalawigin ho natin nang isang taon.”
Since then, motorists have been laminating their paper licenses, with the official receipt and unique QR code at the back which traffic enforcers can scan in case of apprehension. Electronic driver’s licenses (eDL) have also been launched in the Land Transportation Management Systems (LTMS) portal.
Also read: GUIDE: Everything You Need to Know About LTO’s Electronic Driver’s Licenses
This article was created by Spot.ph. Edits have been made by the PEP.ph editors.