THE vehicle impounding facility of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Talisay City, Cebu will be developed into a one-stop shop as a way to improve the services of the LTO in Central Visayas.

The facility, which also currently houses 670,000 unclaimed license plates, is on 3.5 hectares of land.

LTO Chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II visited the LTO 7 impounding facility last Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, and said the area currently used as an impounding and storage facility could be used to expand the services of the LTO.

The one-stop shop would have a driving school, insurance office, medical services and other facilities related to LTO services.

Mendoza said there is no target date yet for the development, but the model for the one-stop shop is that the owner of the property and building are from the private sector and will allow the LTO to rent these.

The agency would welcome being allowed to use the properties for free, however.

“Ayaw kong paunahin yung may-ari ng lugar, pero kung pwede libre,” said Mendoza.

The LTO 7 does not own the land on which its impounding facility stands.

Budget

LTO 7 Director Glen Galario said the office will still work on getting a budget from the House of Representatives.

He said the projected budget would be large, but he could not give an estimate on the amount yet.

Galario hopes that if not in 2024, they can get a budget in 2025.

The facility currently stores 670,000 unclaimed license plates, which are set to be distributed in two months.

The unclaimed plates date all the way back to 2018 with a breakdown of 530,000 for motorcycles and 140,000 for motorized vehicles.

To address the issue, Mendoza said the LTO is currently conducting an audit to determine the possible reasons why the plates were unclaimed, specifically why owners were not informed of their availability.

Order to claim

The LTO will initially come up with an order to have the unclaimed plates properly distributed in 60 days. Mendoza said they will start off with 60 days and see what happens.

Mendoza said there should be a sense of urgency.

Galario said what’s important right now is that the plates will be distributed. He said they had already distributed over 20,000 plates with the help of the dealers.

“I would like to reiterate our message to the dealers. If possible, help us in the distribution of the unclaimed plates,” said Galario.

During his first press conference as LTO 7 director last July 6, Galario said that to reduce the backlog of over 600,000 license plates that still needed to find their rightful owners in the region, the distribution of license plates would now be handled by the vehicle dealers, instead of the LTO 7.