The Land Transportation Office (LTO) in the Philippines is set to implement ‘fast lanes’ at all its offices for the registration of delinquent motor vehicles. LTO chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II announced the initiative on Monday as part of the agency’s campaign to register an estimated 24.7 million unregistered vehicles across the nation.
According to Philippines News Agency, this measure, part of ‘Oplan Balik Rehistro, Be Road Ready’, will be communicated to all LTO officials through a memorandum. The fast lanes are designated for owners voluntarily registering vehicles that have been delinquent, defined as having an expired registration for at least one year. The initiative aims to streamline the registration process for these vehicles, which constitute about 65 percent of all vehicles in the country, with the majority being motorcycles.
The LTO is concurrently enforcing its ‘no registration, no travel’ policy through rigorous law enforcement. Motorists caught driving vehicles with expired registrations face a penalty of PHP10,000. Mendoza emphasized the significant fines associated with unregistered vehicles and encouraged owners to utilize the fast lanes to avoid these penalties.
Additionally, the LTO plans to conduct a ‘One Stop Shop/Service Caravan/Outreach Program’ in various regions. This program is designed to make LTO services more accessible to the public, particularly for the registration of delinquent motor vehicles. Mendoza highlighted the LTO’s efforts to encourage vehicle registration and expressed a preference for proactive measures over enforcement actions due to the high cost of penalties for non-compliance.