EDITORIAL - LTO still struggling

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) said their inventory of plastic card licenses will completely run out by the end of this month. This is why they are temporarily issuing temporary licenses printed on paper.

"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 print-out 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," LTO Chief Jay Art Tugade was quoted as saying in a Philstar.com report.

The lack of plastic cards stemmed from a department order the LTO received last January stating that all procurement involving ?50 million and above will now be conducted by the Department of Transportation central office. This reportedly stopped them from buying enough plastic cards to be used for printing licenses.

While we agree that this temporary solution does make some sense, the LTO should move heaven and earth to print licenses on plastic cards again as soon as possible.

The driver’s license is one of the most-handled documents anyone can have. Having it just on paper makes it prone to getting worn, getting torn, getting wet, or even getting misplaced.

This is not to mention the paper-printed temporary license is such a large and unwieldy document that drivers have to store and take everywhere with them.

Despite the presence of a QR code, we venture to guess that some people may even go as far as to fake some of these temporary licenses.

While it cannot fall into the category of a serious offense this problem is something that can cause inconvenience to many, and someone has to account for the lack of foresight that led to this blunder.

It is sad that the LTO still seems to be unfamiliar or struggling with its basic functions even after all these years. We don’t even have to mention that it sometimes takes years for a simple driver’s license to reach its owner.