The Land Transportation Office 11 has recorded a total of 75,026 backlog in the issuance of three-year driver’s license in the Davao Region as of February 3, an official said on Monday.
In a press conference, LTO 11 director Gomer Dy explained that the delivery of cards “could not keep up” with the number of applications a day.
The agency receives more than 700 applications and renewals a day, he said.
At present, the application fee costs P375 for the three-year license. Dy said the new price for the five-year license would cost more than P600.
LTO 11 issued a total of 40,845 plastic cards this year, to help alleviate the backlogs from December 2016 as they are targeting to solve the pileup by June 2017.
“We keep on requesting additional plastic cards from the central office to solve the backlogs since we have already started with the five-year license policy,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the region has around 350,000 registered vehicles wherein 150,000 of the cars are coming from Davao City alone.
Dy reminded the public to avoid dealing with fixers who he said still make it inside their office by pretending that they have transactions with them.
“Our licensing staff will no longer validate if they are indeed the one whom they are transacting with,” he said.
He also cited an example that one of the clients complained that the fixer gave them a fake plastic card.
Dealing with fixers is prohibited under Republic Act (RA) 9485, also known as Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, “an act to improve efficiency in the delivery of government service to the public by reducing bureaucratic red tape and preventing graft and corruption.”
Section 12 of RA 9485 states that “fixers shall suffer the penalty of imprisonment not exceeding six years of a fine of not less than P20,000 but not more than P200,000 or both at the discretion of the court.”
