LTO begins issuance of new motorcycle plates in NCR

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) – NCR West has started the issuance of the new motorcycle license plates.

The motorcycle plates are compliant with the pre-requisites of R.A. 11235 and sports safety features such as RFID sticker, QR Code, and reflectorized sheeting.

Subsequently, LTO-NCRW leads the distribution of the new motorcycle plates to the riders. The distribution of the new motorcycle plates was led by the NCRW Regional NCRW Regional Director Atty. Clarence V. Guinto, Assistant Regional Director Roque I. Verzosa III, and OPD-NRU Chief Hanzley H. Lim.

Image credits: Philippine Information Agency

In 2016, the Supreme Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), along with the Commission on Audit’s Notice of Disallowance (ND), on the LTO Motor Vehicle License Plate Standardization Program. This prevented the agency from releasing plates to its registered owners. Although both were lifted in 2018, Congress enacted RA 11235 or commonly known as the Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act which mandates a redesigned motorcycle license plate. It was only finalized last May 2020.

According to the agency, the Central Office Plate Manufacturing Plant (CO-PMP) can produce 7,500 motorcycle plates per day. Furthermore, the MC robotics, which will be available in December 2020, can produce 450 plates per hour.

With the new equipment, LTO is optimistic that the upcoming equipment can address the backlog of MC plates at the soonest. As of August 24, 2020, LTO NCR has a total backlog of 1,386,895 motorcycle plates. 235,262 from it were already forwarded to the Central Office Plate Manufacturing Plant (CO-PMP) for plate production. However, it only covers the year 2018 motorcycle registration.

LTO-NCR West also announced the launch of the Moving Forward Project for the registration of new motorcycles. Starting September 2020, the OR/CR and MC plates of motorcycles purchased from September 2020 shall be simultaneously released to the respective dealers to cut the backlog on motorcycle plates.

Additionally, the LTO is in the process of updating its Plate Online Inquiry for the verification of the availability of motorcycle plates.

The announcement for the distribution of motorcycle plates to other regions will be announced soon. Stay tuned on our page for updates.

Source: DOTr Facebook

This report is written by Gracey Maala