41 motorcycles impounded in LTO’s intensified ‘No registration, No travel’

LTO impounds 41 unregistered MCs

Last week, Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief, Atty. Vigor Mendoza II has ordered its Law Enforcement Service (LES) to intensify its efforts on catching drivers and motorcycle riders who are on the road with expired or delinquent registrations. This is to compel motorists to renew their vehicle registrations after the agency reported a staggering PHP 37 billion in lost income for 2023.

During the first day of LTO’s intensified “No registration, No travel” operations, the agency impounded 41 motorcycles with as much as 5 years expired registrations.

“There were just too many motorcycles that are unregistered (with expired registration) and our records indicate that many of them have delinquent registrations for up to 5 years. We won’t allow this and we assure the public that we will do everything to compel these riders to renew their [motorcycle’s] registration,” said Mendoza.

Part of the aggressive operations, according to Mendoza, was his order to the LTO Regional Directors to coordinate with the Police Regional Offices of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and traffic enforcement units of local government units (LGUs) against unregistered motorcycles.

There are around 24.7 million delinquent vehicles, or those whose owners either failed or deliberately refused to have their motor vehicles registered. Most of those delinquent motor vehicles, based on the LTO records, are motorcycles.

LTO-LES said they began deploying enforcers in areas where motorcycles usually travel, such as along Katipunan Avenue and along Aurora Boulevard.

“All the apprehended drivers were issued with citation tickets and all the motorcycles with no registration were impounded,” LTO enforcers said, saying the aggressive operation is in compliance with the directive of the LTO Chief Mendoza.

Mendoza said the campaign to have all delinquent motor vehicles be registered is in line with the order of Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista to ensure that all motor vehicles traveling on the roads pass the road-worthiness inspections which is a requirement for registration.

“The operation we conducted in Metro Manila should serve as a warning to all delinquent motor vehicle owners to register them at the soonest possible time. Don’t wait for us to apprehend you because you’ll be facing a lot of problems, said Mendoza.

Currently, driving an unregistered vehicle/motorcycle corresponds to a PHP 10,000 penalty, plus impounding fees. Only upon settlement of registration and penalties can the vehicle or motorcycle be released from the impounding area.