New LTO licenses out in August

Coming early next month: Color-coded drivers licenses with larger photos and text which may, depending on the Department of Finance (DOF), also cost P70 less.

Land Transportation Office (LTO) spokesperson Jason Salvador said in an interview yesterday that the agency had made a few changes in the cards’ design such as including the words “Driver’s License” in the ones issued to professional and nonprofessional drivers.

This was after several overseas Filipino workers complained that they found it difficult to explain the purpose of the identification card to authorities abroad.

“We live in a global community and most of our kababayan abroad were having a hard time with the license card… so we chose to define it so there won’t be questions anymore,” Salvador said.

The drivers’ licenses will also come in different colors starting next month based on samples provided by the LTO yesterday. Student drivers will be issued orange licenses while conductors will get yellow ones. Professional and nonprofessional drivers will be issued the traditional blue licenses.

Salvador added that other design tweaks include larger pictures and text font sizes.

According to him, the LTO was currently seeking the DOF’s approval in reducing the P350 driver’s license fee by about P70. This was after the LTO bagged a better-than-expected deal when it held an auction to look for a new supplier. Salvador said the agency wanted to pass these savings on to consumers.

Last June, the LTO said Allcard Plastics Philippines Inc. won the bid to supply the government with five million drivers licenses—a move aimed at alleviating a shortage in supply of the government-issued ID.

According to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Allcard Plastics bagged the project after submitting the lowest bid of P336.868 Million.

Its bid was 25.3 percent lower than the original approved budget of the contract—which was set at P 450 million—thereby generating government savings of around P113 million. The cost of the card is roughly around P67.37 each, below the cap of P90.09 per piece, the DOTC said.

The procurement of the LTO license cards supply project opened last May 22, wherein three bidders qualified: Allcard, current supplier Amalgamated Motors Philippines, Inc. (AMPI), and the joint venture of DVK Philippines Enterprises and Cardz Middle East Trading LLC.

The financial bids of AMPI and DVK-Cardz JV were P373.880 million and P428.8 million, respectively, the DOTC said.

AMPI was earlier criticized over the shortage of drivers license cards last year which the company blamed on the government’s inability to pay it.

This was after the Commission on Audit ordered the payments halted due to the lack of a valid contract between LTO and AMPI. –Miguel R. Camus