5-year driver’s license out next month

MANILA, Philippines - Starting next month, the government will extend the validity of driver’s licenses to five years to lessen queues at the Land Transportation Office (LTO), officials said yesterday.

At present, professional and non-professional driver’s licenses are valid only for three years.  

“By Sept. 19, those who will renew their licenses in the National Capital Region will have five-year validity,” Cherie Mercado, spokesperson of the Department of Transportation (DOT) said.

The LTO will initially implement the five-year validity of driver’s licenses in Metro Manila next month.

The rest of the regions will follow in October, Mercado said.

LTO chief Edgar Galvante said the move was in compliance with President Duterte’s directive to lessen queues at the agency.

Galvante said the extension would ease transactions at the LTO as it would take a longer time before license holders need to renew their IDs.

The LTO is in the process of procuring additional plastic cards to address licenses backlog, which reached over one million as of July 15.

Mercado said the government would release 400,000 licenses per month starting November.

Emergency powers for traffic

Meanwhile, Sen. Grace Poe asked Malacañang to present a clear and detailed proposal for granting President Duterte emergency powers to deal with the traffic crisis in Metro Manila and other urban areas in the country.

The Senate committee on public services, chaired by Poe, will start hearings on measures seeking to grant emergency powers to Duterte.

“Traffic congestion is a difficult problem but it can’t be that ‘just give us emergency powers and leave things to us’ and we give the same with our eyes closed,” Poe told radio dzMM.

“It’s like giving them (Duterte administration) broad powers that may be abused,” she said. – With Louella Desiderio, Paolo Romero