Supplier eyes 'hard paper' for driver's licenses despite high budget

MANILA, Philippines - The government supplier of driver’s license cards is planning to push switching to cheaper “hard paper” instead of plastic despite a higher budget for producing the cards, insiders at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) said yesterday.

According to an official, who requested anonymity, there was no need to switch to hard paper since the LTO has steadily increased the contract for Amalgamated Motors Philippines Inc. to supply, produce and deliver driver’s license cards. The LTO allocated P600 million for AMPI this year, up by P56 million from 2011’s budget of P544 million.

The 2010 budget for AMPI’s driver’s license cards was P508 million.

The official said AMPI has kept the contract to supply the LTO with the driver’s license cards since bagging the contract on July 4, 1984 by repeatedly entering into contract extensions of three to four years each.

The last supplemental agreement that extended the supply contract of AMPI was signed on Sept. 22, 2000. The agreement expired in June 2006.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Manuel Roxas II has ordered a probe into the incident, in which driver’s license cards bearing an unauthorized design was issued to several applicants. The incident prompted LTO chief Virginia Torres to suspend the issuance of new cards since June 11.

“We are conducting an investigation why AMPI made the unauthorized change without our approval,” Roxas said. 

AMPI spokesperson Melanie Cuevas, in a statement sent to The STAR, denied that such an incident occurred, saying the firm would not issue cards bearing the new design without the LTO’s say-so.

Longer process

According to an LTO officer, the new cards “were made of hard paper, colored yellow, which had to undergo a one-minute lamination process.” A plastic driver’s license card takes two minutes to process, while the new card takes three minutes to produce.

The source said if an LTO office processes 300 cards a day, that means “an additional five hours in the production process and that is just for the lamination” of the new cards. It means “we will ask an applicant to come back the next day to claim their licenses, unlike previously when they can wait within the day for their license to be issued,” he said.

Cuevas said the added processing time is “insignificant and negligible” compared to the durability of the new card, which she said will not break down, tear or fade.

She said the new card has a proprietary bi-metal foil used in money and security documents, a security fiber, and an embedded hologram that shows a “ghost image” of the cardholder.

The LTO source, however, said the new card “may be more prone to wear and tear and easily deformed, especially if kept in a leather wallet for long periods of time.”