High-tech license plates, low-tech LTO

MANILA, Philippines–Judging from the growing number of private vehicles sporting new seven-digit black and white license plates, it looks like the Land Transportation Office (LTO) is slowly licking its massive backlog.

After several delays and thousands of irate new car owners adversely affected by government’s “no-plate, no-travel policy,” it’s a relief to see the plates finally being issued by the agency.
Transport officials claim the new license plates have high tech security features like tamper-resistant locks and screws that permanently attach the plates to the vehicle, reflectorized sheets that make them visible from afar, and bar codes.
However, LTO insiders claim that while the new car plates appear high tech, the agency’s computer systems and software are not. LTO was supposed to upgrade its computer systems to handle the shift from six- to seven-digit plates but, for one reason or another, it failed to do so.

In fact, our sources say the agency has gone back to the dark ages by manually recording each license plate issued.

This manual recording poses serious problems since all new plates are apparently not inputted in LTO’s computer database and thus not available online.

More importantly, in case of crimes or accidents, law enforcers or even ordinary citizens cannot immediately determine or verify the registered owner of a particular vehicle since LTO has to manually sift through its voluminous records to check the new plate number in question.

“You want proof?” dares our LTO source. “Try texting your new seven-digit car plate to 2600 and you will get this response: ‘Invalid plate number length format (must be 4 to 6 characters in length) P2.50/text’.” Ouch.–Daxim L. Lucas