CALAMBA CITY, Laguna (PIA) – The Land Transportation Office (LTO) Region IV-A has announced that amid the resumption of the release of plastic driver’s license cards in the region, some of their offices temporarily stopped issuing licenses to avoid wastage of government funds used for printing.

During the Philippine Information Agency Sulong Calabarzon program, Clarissa Sulit, the LTO Calabarzon operations division chief and transportation regulation officer said that after the lifting of the injunction on the printing of plastic license cards, some field and district offices have temporarily stopped issuing licenses due to printing errors and poor quality.

Sulit emphasized, “If 10 percent of printed cards are rejected, it’s imperative to stop printing to avoid wasting resources. Similarly, if a license card has undergone multiple printings yet remains defective, printing must be stopped due to issues of wasting the cost of the cards.”

She assured the public that the regional office had reported the matter to their central office.

In an official Facebook post, the agency urged the public to bear with the current situation and assured them that the matter would be addressed as soon as possible.

Several LTO offices in the Calabarzon region including the Sta. Cruz District Office, San Pedro Extension Office, San Pablo Licensing Center, DLRO Southwoods Biñan, Imus District Office, Bacoor District Office, Tagaytay District Office, DLRO Imus, Tanauan District Office, Taal Extension Office, DLRO Lemery, Balayan District Office, Antipolo District Office, Taytay Extension Office, and Montalban Extension Office have reported poor printing quality issues with the driver’s license cards.

A month after the delivery of one million pieces of plastic driver’s license cards, the agency has recently received an additional 600,000 pieces which regional and district offices will obtain for the ongoing processing and distribution of plastic-printed driver’s license cards.

The transportation officer, however, clarified that drivers may only go to their offices if they are included in the schedule posted by district offices.

She added: “Sometimes people get upset when they arrive, saying, “I thought when we came here, the card would be ready for pick-up.”. We don’t print by batch, whoever walks in, that’s who we prioritize to print. We used to do it before for efficiency, however, even if the cards are printed, they don’t always pick them up. Then those who haven’t had their cards printed yet come to claim their cards, so what happens is, the cards end up being wasted.”

For the plastic license cards set to be printed following the schedule, LTO said that they will individually print the plastic license cards once a driver physically appears in their offices to ensure the high quality of the driver’s licenses.

The public is urged to stay updated and monitor LTO’s official website and social media accounts for timely and relevant announcements regarding the issuance of driver’s licenses. (CO/PIA-4A)