By Azer N. Parrocha
MANILA, Aug. 28 (PNA) — A transport official on Friday announced that driver’s license centers will be open on Saturdays starting Aug. 29 to help ease the backlog of around 900,000 license cards by October this year.
“We will now open our licensing centers on Saturdays for backlogs on driver’s license cards,” said Land Transportation Office (LTO) spokesman Jason Salvador in a briefing at the Light Rail Transit Line 2 Depot in Santolan.
“This means that if you applied for a license before but did not get your license card yet, you don’t need to file for a leave, or half day on weekdays. You can visit our office on Saturdays,” he added.
Salvador said that this scheme will begin in select offices in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Region 4 and will gradually roll out all over the country.
“Eventually all licensing centers, district offices, and extension offices will also be open on Saturdays to accommodate your licensing needs,” he noted.
The LTO spokesman pointed out that all driver’s license cards are expected to be printed out by October since LTO continues to print after office hours including Saturdays.
He revealed that about 1,000 driver’s license cards are printed per day.
“We will be open Saturdays for driver’s license card transactions but for the meantime this is only for the claiming of cards to ease the backlogs,” he further said.
Salvador, meanwhile, said that the renewal of licenses has also been fast-tracked. The process has fewer steps since applicants will no longer need to fill out application forms.
He said that they will only need to bring a valid identification and a medical certificate, get details checked and proceed to getting their photos taken. This process will only take 10 to 15 minutes. (PNA)