Charles Teves
The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has acknowledged a current shortage of plastic driver’s license cards in the Philippines and as a result, they have decided to issue temporary licenses printed on paper.
LTO head Jay Art Tugade shared this information with the media on Thursday, explaining that this situation is due to a department order received in January requiring all procurements worth 50 million Philippine pesos or more to be handled by the central office of the Department of Transportation.
According to Tugade, “To those who will renew their driver’s license, [if] there’s no supply of plastic cards in a certain office, they will be given a printout of the [official receipt] of their driver’s license. At the back of it will bear the driver’s license that should have been printed out on a plastic card for them.”
The Official Receipt (OR) will have a unique QR code that law enforcement officers will use to verify its authenticity. Motorists must present the OR if they are stopped by authorities while driving. Tugade stated that the stock of plastic driver’s license cards is expected to be completely depleted by the end of April 2023.
“The lack of supply of license cards right now is a nationwide problem. So right now, there are still [LTO] offices in the [National Capital Region] who still have available plastic cards,” he continued.
However, he also confirmed that some NCR offices have completely used up plastic cards. This situation netizens called the LTO’s infraction “embarrassing.”
Mapapa-haiyaaaa ka talaga with this government.
Biruin mo, papel lang bibigay sa you when you apply for a new driver’s license.
Tapos yun National ID, nakatengga yun application ng iba.
— Duey Guison (@duey_guison) April 20, 2023
https://twitter.com/sarisazarsuelo/status/1649219887523299337?s=20
https://twitter.com/dazzleneal/status/1649758305005494278?s=20
We deserve better government service pls https://t.co/iBycZLpFPA
— Arian Ramirez (@arianramirezz) April 22, 2023
https://twitter.com/andrubonipeys/status/1649278339969056768?s=20
the whole ph is a joke i swear, from an ineffective sim card registration law, a massive data breach, and now this 😭 https://t.co/EdyjgH1ujS
— maju 🇵🇸 (@irahmjlyn) April 20, 2023
adding this to the list of reasons why philippines is the worst country to live in https://t.co/ljcKhlOHUD
— Alyssa (@alyssamazinggg) April 20, 2023
Tugade said that one of his initial tasks when he took on LTO leadership, was to assess the current inventory of plastic licenses and license plates. This led him to learn of the severe shortage.
The LTO has informed the public that they are just as concerned about the situation and are working to resolve the issue. They assured the public that they would print the licenses as soon as they receive another supply of cards.
This shortage is not the first time it has occurred, as it previously occurred in 2016 when thousands of drivers had to wait for years to receive plastic license cards.
