New Land Transportation Office (LTO) Chairperson Assistant Secretary Markus Lacanilao on Monday suspended an order mandating the release of license plates and documents on the same day the new motor vehicles are turned over to their owners.
Memorandum Circular VDM-2025-4665, issued by former LTO Chairperson Vigor Mendoza last September 17, provides the guidelines for the same-day release of license plates and documents of brand new vehicles.
It was supposed to take effect on October 15, 2025.
First, the intention seems good, but it is not practical,’ Lacanilao said in Filipino.
Lacanilao said that this policy needs to be reviewed before it is implemented.
He also clarified that the order will only be suspended and not revoked.
‘This will be difficult to implement, especially in provinces and far-flung areas. It’s not right for the LTO to transfer the responsibility to private businesses,’ Lacanilao added in a press conference.
Mendoza previously said that the memorandum order complies with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directive to expedite the release of license plates and certificates of registration ‘in the soonest possible time.’
Mendoza noted that while the instruction mandates the release of documents within three days, he said that the LTO assessed that they could be done on the same day the new vehicle is turned over to the owner.
The LTO previously said that the memorandum order was to ensure that the Philippines’ 11-year problem on backlogs of license plates would not happen again.
Former Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon earlier announced that the government has cleared the backlog on the release of license plates after 11 years.
He said that the backlog was downgraded to over 5.4 million plates in 2025-more than 2.3 million in Luzon, 1.4 million in Metro Manila, 992,000 in Mindanao, and 672,000 in Visayas.
Meanwhile, Lacanilao also suspended on Monday VDM-2025-4674, or the order prohibiting and penalizing the use of temporary and improvised vehicle plates starting November 1. He noted that the agency will have to review the policy.
Under this memorandum, the LTO would impose a P5,000 fine and confiscate the improvised or temporary plates of violators.
The Department of Transportation said that the distribution of the 5.4 million plates would be completed by October 2025.