MANILA, Philippines — With at least one million plastic cards set to be delivered to the Land Transportation Office by the end of September, the LTO said yesterday it may resume the issuance of driver’s licenses soon.
LTO chief Vigor Mendoza said the 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) issued in August by a Quezon City court, which stopped the awarding of the contract for the production of driver’s license cards had lapsed.
Mendoza said the agency is slowly building up supply of the driver’s license cards to address the estimated 2.4-million backlog.
“Tuloy-tuloy na ang delivery. We hope to complete one million license cards by the end of the month. Siguro kapag nakaisang milyon na, we will start working on the backlog,” he said in a radio interview.
According to Mendoza, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court is still hearing the petition filed by a losing bidder, which questioned the P240-million deal for the supply of five million plastic cards.
“Still, we can continue receiving the plastic cards as the 20-day TRO lapsed last week,” he said.
The LTO is looking to address the backlog of driver’s licenses, Mendoza noted.
“Hindi natin inaasahan ang kasong isinampa, but we are on track,” he said, adding that the backlog of driver’s licenses started during the previous administration.
The LTO has ordered the automatic extension of the validity of expired driver’s licenses until April 3 next year.
Mendoza said there would be no revenue lost as the agency can catch up during the renewal of driver’s licenses once the backlog is addressed.