At long last? LTO orders 15M metal plates, vows to clear license-plate backlog by 2024

The Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) decades-long saga of replacing all the license plates in the country may finally come to an end.

The agency announced in a September 2023 press statement that it has ordered 15 million metal plates to clear the current backlog that covers 13.2 million motorcycles and around 179,000 motor vehicles. 

LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II said deliveries of the plates have already started.

“Humahabol na tayo kase bumibilis na po ‘yung delivery ng plates ‘no to the tune of 250,000 pairs every month for the motor vehicle and 1 million every month for the motorcycle,” he told the House of Representatives during the 2024 budget hearings.

[Translation: We are catching up because the delivery of plates is getting faster to the tune of 250,000 pairs every month for motor vehicles and 1 million every month for motorcycles.]

The Department of Transportation, which is the mother agency of the LTO, is asking for ₱214.3 billion for next year. This is more than double the ₱106 billion it got for 2023.

Mendoza also said the LTO’s own plate production capacity has ramped up to 32,000 plates a day or 700,000 a month, adding that it plans to clear the license-plate backlog by 2024.

The LTO has already started releasing license plates for older cars and motorcycles. AutoFun Philippines underwent the entire process of getting replacement plates for my old BMW 3 Series.

Do you think this telenovela-like issue with license plates will finally have its season finale?

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