THE Land Transportation Office-Davao Region (LTO-Davao) reminds owners of newly bought vehicles to renew their registration to avoid a P12,000 penalty.
Michael Yarra, adjudicator at LTO-Davao, said during the iSpeak Media Forum on Thursday, November 30, at the City Mayor’s Office that a penalty of around P10,000 to P12,000 will be meted to those who would not renew their registration.
“Kahit rehistrado yan pero hindi na renew that’s tantamount to unregistered pa rin, for that year unregistered ka meron kang penalty na, malaki po yan, that’s P10,000 plus reckless driving P2,000 so more or less tatakbo yan sa P12,000 (Even though it is registered but not renewed that’s [still] tantamount to unregistered, for that year you are unregistered, you will have a penalty and it will be huge, that’s P10,000 plus reckless driving P2,000 so more or less it will be P12,000),” Yarra said.
The LTO-Davao observed that several newly-bought vehicles do not renew their registration and the number of cars on the roads is increasing every year.
“It is alarming on our part (that) there are a lot of newly registered motor vehicles and pagdating ng magpapa-renew na sila nawawala na but still increasing pa rin ang number of vehicles sa ating kalsada (It is alarming on our part [that] there are a lot of newly-registered motor vehicles but when it comes to their renewal they are missing but still the number of vehicles in our roads are increasing),” Yarra said.
Hence, the regional office received a mandate from the main office to strengthen their ‘Balik Rehistro Program’ since it was observed that there are a lot of newly-bought vehicles that do not renew their car registration. The program aims to help and encourage owners to register their vehicles.
He then stressed that they are not forcing owners to register for monetary purposes, rather it is to ensure that all of the vehicles traversing the roads in the region are safe for the drivers as well as the pedestrians. It is only through registering the vehicle that it will be thoroughly checked if it is road-worthy and emission-compliant.
In line with the program, the LTO is conducting information dissemination to give notice to the public until December 15, 2023. LTO will not apprehend violators but rather they will give notice to the flagged down vehicles to give chance to drivers and operators to renew their registration. Once they are given a notice they will be required to register their vehicle within 24 hours. If the owners fail to register, their vehicle will be alarmed for driving an unregistered vehicle.
One of the factors why there are numerous cases of newly-bought vehicles that do not renew their registration is because owners believe that when they purchase the vehicle, the car company will renew the registration for them since they are not yet fully paid.
Another factor is that owners of repossessed motorcycles do not know the current situation of the registration of their vehicles.
Also, Yarra pointed out that since the implementation of the ‘Balik Rehistro Program” many drivers have already come to their office to renew their registration. RGP