To temporarily relieve the LTO of its problems regarding the dwindling supply of its license cards, the National Printing Office (NPO), the country’s government printer, has committed to producing 5 million driver’s license cards for the LTO within 60 days.

This was confirmed by DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista to Philippine Star, saying that he had met with NPO director Carlos Bathan to talk about the planned government agency-to-government agency emergency procurement. The final proposal for the said emergency procurement should be finalized within the week.

Through this approach, the LTO will not need to undergo public bidding for procuring the license cards it needs. However, the government has yet to address the concern regarding the dwindling supply of license plates.

Should the deal push through without any issues, this should give LTO some relief when it comes to license cards while it is working to procure more supplies. Prior to this, LTO chief Jose Arturo Tugade announced that license cards expiring on April 24 will have an extended validity until October 31.

While the LTO has repeatedly blamed the DOTr for the delayed procurement of license cards and license plates, the DOTr pointed out that the government agency could have procured these supplies earlier. Bautista emphasized that LTO had a lot of time last year: between August 22–when the proposed national expenditure program for 2023 was submitted by Malacañang to Congress–and December 16, when the General Appropriations Act was enacted. For the latter, Php 541.5 million was earmarked for procurement.