Licenses at last

5-year driver's license issuance starts Sept.22

THE regional office of the Land Transportation Office (LTO 11) will start releasing the driver's license cards with five-year validity on September 22 but those who renewed or applied from November 2 to November 30 will be given priority.

LTO 11 regional director Gomer Dy, during yesterday's AFP-PNP Press Corps media forum, said the distribution will continue to further cater to all the backlogs in a more systematic way.

According to him, the supplier of the cards promised to provide the pre-printed cards to address the backlogs of driver's license that have reached to 150,000.

By September 18, they will deploy the equipment

for the five-year license validity. They will connect and install the machine and then conduct operational testing to ensure that it is functional and no errors during the printing process.

To date, there are two working stations in Metro Davao Licensing Center and the central office will provide another machine as back-up.

Dy also said that they have made sure that they acquire fast internet connection since the printing machine is internet dependent and its processing time will depend on the speed of the internet.

Yesterday, Dy said that they held awareness seminar on the processing of five years validity of driver's license as well as briefing and training for personnel who will operate the machine.

The new license card, although it looks similar to the old

one, has more enhanced security features that are not available before with the addition of barcode, hologram and emboss characters, among others. Dy noted that there would be no additional costs for its acquisition.

He said that they will continue to print the license card with three-year validity to deliver the backlog of about 5,000 to 6,000 cards. He clarified that those who have applied for three years must wait for its expiration because they could apply for the five year validity card.

On August 2, President Rodrigo Duterte inked the law that extends the validity of the driver's license from three years to five years under the Republic Act (RA) No. 10930 effectively amended Section 23 of Republic Act No. 4136, otherwise known as the "Land Transportation (LTO) and Traffic Code."

Under the law, it will also extend the validity of those holding five-year licenses to 10 years if they have not committed any violation in the past five years to encourage drivers to obey traffic rules.