LTO: 8.5M motorcycles have expired registrations

LTO says half of motorcycle population unregistered

The Land Transportation Office (LTO), through Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II, during an interview, says that their recent estimates show that half of the total motorcycle population here in the country have delinquent or expired registrations.

“Based on our figures, there are more than 8.5 million motorcycles and many of them are just delinquent on their registrations… We are looking at around 16 million to 17 million in total motorcycle population,” said Mendoza during the interview in Filipino.

Mendoza added that, as far back as 20 years ago, the LTO has seen a trend that motorists will only do the initial registration for a brand-new vehicle or motorcycle, but will no longer renew its registration once it expires.

The LTO estimates that every year, about 1 million vehicle registrations are not renewed or become delinquent, which to date, forms about 60% of all vehicles on the road.

Penalty for expired registration

Driving a vehicle or motorcycle with an expired registration is not without penalties. In fact, Section II A of Joint Administrative Order (JAO) 2014-01 of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) prescribes a PHP 10,000 penalty for driving an unregistered vehicle or motorcycle, plus impound if the registration is already expired for more than 1 month.

Upon registration, penalty fees will be imposed by the LTO on top of the regular registration fees.

Should the LTO update its policy?

While the LTO’s services have significantly improved over the past couple of years, transacting with the agency, in many cases, is still difficult and would often require the whole day for just a simple renewal. It’s also no secret that many of the agency’s satellite offices experience the problem of being “offline” during business hours and would require clients to go back the next day, without the promise of being serviced because “it depends on the internet.”

A lot of times, too, motorists transacting with the LTO would have to fall in line as early as possible just to be counted within the “cut-off”. If you’re unlucky and were not counted within the cut-off time, better come earlier the next day.

Considering these problems encountered by motorists who are transacting with the LTO, should Asec. Mendoza consider an amnesty program for delinquent vehicle registrations or extend the validity of vehicle registrations similar to those in other countries?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.