LAND Transportation Office (LTO)-Davao said it is still waiting for its central office to finish its regional and district assessment before it could produce the driver's license cards with five-year validity.
As of Tuesday, August 29, Davao City has 142,444 clients waiting for new license cards.
LTO central office on Tuesday already issued plastic license cards with a five-year validity to all motorists in National Capital Region (NCR) who applied and renewed their old license cards from November 2016 to present.
In the region, however, LTO-Davao director lawyer Gomer Dy, in an interview with SunStar Davao, said there is no precise date yet on when the central office will send the plastic cards as the assessment on internet connection is still ongoing.
"The central office requires all regional and district offices to have at least eight to ten megabits per second (MBPS) of internet connection since the new licensing process of the office is through direct operation of regional and district offices to the central office," he said.
In the region, Dy said almost all district offices have met the basic requirement of the central office except for Digos City and Island Garden City of Samal offices as both only have four to five MBPS internet connection.
He said LTO-Davao will immediately improve the internet connection issue to start the issuance of the new license cards as the central office will only send the license card supply once all the regional and district offices have complied with the requirement.
Once the plastic license cards are delivered, Dy said LTO-Davao targets to accommodate 300 to 350 licensing clients per day. However, he said they will request additional plastic cards to accommodate at least 500 clients per day.
The plastic card supply was supposed to be distributed throughout the country earlier this year but it faced issues with the Commission on Audit, thus, a new bidding was needed.
"For now, let us just see the result of the ceremonial release of plastic cards in NCR to know how effective the new processing is," Dy said.