Vehicle plates ready for release

AROUND 700,000 license plates can now be released to motorists after the Supreme Court lifted the temporary restraining order it issued in 2016.

The TRO had prevented the Land Transportation Office from releasing the license plates. With the lifting of the TRO, there is no hurdle at this point to the release of the plates.

“Around 333,000 plates are still with us, although these have been distributed in the different regions before it was stopped, they had to hold it for the meantime. But now that we have been given the go signal, we are preparing to distribute it," LTO Chief Edgar Galvante.

In the latest ruling of the Supreme Court, Spokesperson Theodore Te explained the en banc denied the petitions to declare as illegal the donation of the 700,000 license plates to the LTO.

In his last visit to the LTO Cordillera Regional Office in Baguio City, the Galvante assured the plate distribution to be done in the coming months.

"By the end of April 2018, LTO may start distributing the plates under the winning bidder for the procurement of the plates due to the pending decision of the Supreme Court and disallowances by the Commission on Audit," Galvante added.

The Bureau of Customs confiscated 300,000 license plates for motor vehicles and 400,000 plates for motorcycles in 2016 after the manufacturer failed to pay taxes.

Instead of disposing of these, the BOC donated the plates to the LTO to address the latter's backlog in issuing plates to motorists. Jonathan Llanes