LTO’s ‘sandwich’ plates

ON DEC. 30, 2010, I purchased a brand-new vehicle. Part of the deal was a free three-year registration. Because of number coding, I requested for license plates ending in “1” or “2.” Up to now, more than three months after the purchase, I have yet to receive the license plates. My dealer tells me that according to the Land Transportation Office-Muntinlupa, there are no available plates. The plates with “1” and “2″’ endings are “sandwiched” numbers—e.g., “101” or “232″—and to get one of those plates, I have to pay P1,000 “extra.” What is the legal basis for this “extra” charge?

If LTO officials are competently doing their jobs, instead of conjuring their own money-making schemes, they should have a sufficient inventory of license plates at any given time, so that every newly registered vehicle should get its own within a few days. That they do not have such inventory merely proves their incompetence at best, and an intent to extort at worst.

Evidently, the delay is deliberate on the part of certain LTO officials, meant to squeeze more money from the very citizens who are paying their salaries. It is not as if we are not already paying substantial sums (road user’s tax, sticker costs, comp fee) to register our vehicles.
The appropriate government agency should investigate and put an immediate end to such nefarious activities. And fire and prosecute those crooks in the LTO.

—MANUEL L. ORTEGA,
Manuel-L.Ortega@aia.com