WITH the continued effort to release unclaimed license plates in the Central Visayas region, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 has urged motorcycle and motor vehicle owners bearing temporary plates to visit the nearest LTO office to claim their license plates.
This is to significantly increase the number of the released unclaimed license plates in Central Visayas for this year.
LTO 7 Director Glen Galario asks the public to visit the nearest LTO office in their area to process the release of their unclaimed license plates.
“We still have thousands of plates in our storage facility in Talisay City in Cebu, and we want to intensify again the release of these license plates,” said Galario.
The regional director also revealed that over 100,000 plates were claimed last year.
“Based on our latest data, we have distributed a total of 105,127 license plates in the last seven months, and we want to intensify our efforts in distributing these plates. We want the public to know that we have plates available for them to collect,” said Galario.
Data from LTO 7 show that from June 9, 2023 to Jan. 19, 2024, a total of 91,835 motorcycle plates were released while 13,154 motor vehicle plates were also claimed by vehicle owners.
“Bring a copy of your original receipt (OR) and certificate of registration (CR) to the nearest LTO 7 and present it to our Public Assistance Complaints Desk (PACD) so that we can process the release of your plates.”
To process the release of license plates in LTO offices, clients should fill out the Plate Information Form through the PACD and submit their copy of OR and CR.
They will receive a text confirmation within the next 48 hours to know the status of their license plates and/or when to claim them.
It was in September last year when the LTO 7 launched the “Oplan Bigay Plaka,” the agency’s initiative to reduce the backlog of unclaimed license plates.
The goal of the Oplan is to collect vital data from motorists and vehicle owners through a random roadside inspection.
“We will also intensify our Oplan Bigay Plaka this year as we are optimistic to see a significant decrease of our backlogs for the license plates,” said Galario.
Oplan Bigay Plaka was launched a month after the Aug. 1 visit of LTO Chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza to the LTO 7’s facility in Talisay City, where he found around 670,000 unclaimed license plates.
Some 530,000 of the plates were for motorcycles, while 140,000 were for motorized vehicles, some dating as far back as 2018.