Just as everyone is looking forward to actual driver’s license cards instead of just a piece of paper, a preliminary injunction from a local court has delayed the procurement of the license cards anew. This means that the LTO will not fulfill its promise of no more license card backlogs by the end of 2023.

LTO Asec. Vigor Mendoza confirmed in a TeleRadyo interview that the upcoming batch of driver’s license cards was delayed due to a court injunction stemming from a complaint filed by AllCard Inc.

“Once effective, mahihinto ang supplier natin. Hindi na siya pwedeng magdeliver…Dati goodbye papel, eto welcome back although the injunction is not yet effective,” Mendoza explained in the interview.

To recall, AllCard’s complaint stems from the DoTR awarding the contract to Banner Plastic Card Inc.. Banner Plastic’s bid was Php 219 million, which is higher than AllCard’s Php 177 million bid. AllCard’s bid was disqualified due to “delays” with its projects with the BSP and other government agencies.

Because of this court injunction, Mendoza said that they will only be able to address their backlogs only for licenses that expired last April 2023. To address its remaining backlogs, the LTO is looking to start its bidding process for 4-5 million license cards early in time for its procurement for 2024.

Aside from a paper driver’s license, the LTO also rolled out an electronic driver’s license via its LTMS portal—though the catch with that is that you can only access it directly from the portal. Because of this delay, it’s possible that the LTO might extend the validity of driver’s license cards beyond its initial October 31 deadline.