A CONGRESSMAN urged the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to stop its new vehicle plates program, calling it a racket and a “stinking” program that only favors a contractor but burdens the riding public.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis entire program is not only illegal and a financial mess but a logistical disaster resulting in delayed delivery of the new car plates by the ‘favored contractor’ who manufactures them abroad,\u201d Isabela Representative Rodolfo Albano III said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n
The P3.8-billion contract with joint venture Power Plates Development Concepts Inc. and Dutch firm J. Knierem BV-Goes for the new license plates was inked as early as 2013. But the LTO and the Department of Transportation and Communications formally released the new license plates just this January to replace the old and existing 16 million vehicle plates.<\/p>\n\n
The new license plates, valid until 2017, have a black and white design, tamper-resistant locks and screws and reflectorized sheeting.<\/p>\n\n
Each license plate costs P450 for four-wheeled vehicles and P120 for tricycles and motorcycles.<\/p>\n\n
Albano said the program is only a “milk and bilk racket” and is unnecessary because the old vehicle plates are still useable.<\/p>\n\n
He added that there is a loss to the economy because the new license plates could have been manufactured in the country but the LTO opted to choose the favored contractor that produces it abroad.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis LTO program stinks.\u00a0\u00a0Why did\u00a0the LTO allow\u00a0the new vehicle license plates to be manufactured abroad by the ‘favored’ contractor, Power Plates Development Concepts Inc. and J. Knieriem BV Goes or JKG, when these\u00a0vehicle\u00a0plates could be competently produced locally?\u201d Albano asked.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBut the most serious disservice to millions of\u00a0vehicle owners are delays in the release of the license plates which cause them to go back to the LTO after paying for car registrations to claim the new car plates,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n
He also questioned the quality of the plates, noting that the media has reported plates being bent when the vehicles cross flooded streets.<\/p>\n\n
The lawmaker added that the new security feature bar code is useless because the LTO does not have a bar code reader. The bar code also supposedly does not contain the information of the vehicle owner.<\/p>\n\n
“One motorist complained how his new license plates bent as he waded through knee-high floods in Quezon City saying that the water bouncing back from the radiator was enough to bend the plates, which he says never happened to his old plates,\u201d Albano said.<\/p>\n\n
Albano found it ludicrous that the LTO vowed to replace the deformed plates if they were defective.\u00a0\u201cKitang kita na ang ebidensiya, nagpapalusot pa,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A CONGRESSMAN urged the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to stop its new vehicle plates program, calling it a racket and a “stinking” program that only favors a contractor but burdens the riding public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":863,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,45],"tags":[206079,41955],"byline":[130770],"source":[206075],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n