A Cebu Councilor criticizes the LTO's plan to penalize vehicles without official license plates.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A Cebu City councilor has expressed strong objection to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) of Central Visayas' plan to enforce a memorandum punishing vehicles without LTO-issued license plates beginning September 1.

In a privilege speech made on September 4, Councilor Rey Gealon challenged why the LTO appeared to be "singling out" Cebu and its motorists for concerns about the new guidelines. The circular in question permits the seizure of all automobiles and motorbikes with non-LTO-issued plates.

Gealon, who also chairs the transportation committee, said that penalizing motorists would be "unjust" because the LTO is responsible for the delays in producing over 12 million license plates.

"Why is Cebu singled out by the LTO?""Gealon asked. "Why apprehend motorists for not having official plates when the problem lies with the LTO's own faults and failure?"

On July 1, the LTO issued a circular authorizing the seizure of automobiles with non-LTO-licensed plates. New automobiles can use temporary plates for 15 days after the sales invoice, however, motorbikes can only use temporary plates if purchased before January 1, 2023. Under Joint Administrative Order No. 2014-01, violators may face penalties of up to P5,000.

On August 27, LTO-7 declared that it would start apprehending automobiles without legal plates. However, they added that vehicles carrying temporary plates would not be issued tickets right away; instead, traffic officers would photograph essential papers such as sales invoices to check plate manufacturing status.

As of February 2024, the backlog of LTO plates was 12,548,909, the result of years of delays and bureaucratic inefficiency. Regardless, LTO-7 is the only region planned to strictly enforce the circular.

Gealon slammed the LTO for failing to provide the plates and punished drivers for their own delays. He insisted that the LTO not apprehend motorists until the backlog was resolved.

"The LTO should not even consider apprehending motorists until there is no backlog in plate production," Gealon added, highlighting legal and moral concerns about executing the directive in the current circumstances.

While the LTO-7 has suspended complete execution of the circular until December 31, 2024, following public uproar and involvement by Senate Majority Floor Leader Francis Tolentino, Gealon claimed

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Sources/Credits: LTO-7 slammed for new license plate rules despite 12M backlog (msn.com)

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