1.2 million vehicles registered in region last year

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 registered 1.2 million vehicles in Central Visayas in 2018.

According to LTO 7 Director Vic Caindec, all owners of the brandnew motorcycles and vehicles received their registrations, except for those who bought vehicles from Dec. 15 to Dec. 31 last year.

He said they processed the papers for 350,000 motorcycles and 900,000 vehicles (four wheels and bigger ones).

Motorists, he said, should blame dealers if their new motorcycles had no registration papers.

Caindec said they could not give license plates to motorcycle owners as the LTO stopped the issuance in 2015 because of a pending congressional investigation on the alleged anomaly in manufacturing license plates.

The LTO 7 chief also said some car dealers that lacked business papers often delayed the process of registering vehicles.

A dealer with no LTO 7 accreditation and business permit from the Cebu City Hall processed the registrations of motorcycles that it sold to motorists in Central Visayas in Region 2 in Luzon.

Caindec said another dealer that had no funds for registration still sold 2,000 motorcycles last month.

“When a motorcycle owner complains, the agent tells him the LTO employee asked for a bribe. What bribe? They registered the motorcycles in a faraway place,” he said in Cebuano.