LTO rolls out 5-year drivers’ license cards

FILE PHOTO/ LTO

MANILA  — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has rolled out Tuesday the drivers’ license cards with five-year validity.

LTO Chief Edgar Galvante said drivers who will either acquire or renew their licenses will be getting cards on the same day.

He assured that the license cards will be tamper-proof as these will contain biometric information of the drivers.

“The license cards will have a barcode that will record the driver’s fingerprints. Prior license cards do not have this security feature,” the LTO chief told reporters

“The processing of the license cards is very technologically-advanced. Thus, we are confident that nobody will be able to breach or tamper with the data,” he added.

Galvante said drivers who have shown good driving behavior will be able to renew their licenses for up to ten years.

President Rodrigo Duterte has recently signed into law Republic Act No. 10930 extending the validity of driver’s licenses from three years to five years.

Under the law, professional or nonprofessional drivers who did not violate traffic regulations during the five year period can renew their licenses up to 10 years subject to restrictions by the LTO.

Galvante likewise expects the agency will be able to address its backlog in issuing driver’s licenses. The agency has more than three million backlogs in driver’s licenses nationwide from October 2016 to July 2017.

“We have started issuing five-year validity driver’s licenses since October 2016 but these are through paper receipts,” he said.

The LTO is eyeing to issue the license cards at its satellite offices in the National Capital Region (NCR) by the first week of September. In Regions 3, 4-A and 11 they will be available by middle of next month while the rest of the country will have them by October. (PNA)