THE Land Transportation Office (LTO)-Davao said it supports the newly-signed law extending the validity of drivers' license to five years from the previous three years as it benefits both the office and the license holders.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law on Wednesday, July 2, the Republic Act No. 10930 amending the Section 23 of the LTO Code (Republic Act No. 4136) to extend the validity of drivers' licenses.
LTO-Davao Director lawyer Gomer Dy, in an interview with VoxPop Davao, said the full effectivity of the law will be in the middle of September or 30 days after the law be signed.
"This law is actually made to function like in other countries. In western countries, the drivers' licenses are even valid for 15 years. At least the Philippines is slowly competing with the global scheme," Dy said.
The registration for the five-year license already started last November 2016 after Duterte released an executive order regarding the extension of the drivers' license validity.
However, Dy said it is through the new law that the validity extension will become official along with the release of the new license cards.
"For those who registered from November 2016 to present, we only gave them a paper with the complete license detail, ensuring that they are accredited drivers," Dy said.
The valid license cards, he added, will be released to all new registrants between October or November this year.
Dy said the new drivers' licenses will be installed with micro chips for an advanced method of usage in the future.
The city, he added, already has 27,164 accumulated registrants from November 2016 to August 3, 2017, all waiting for the release of their new drivers' licenses.
"The law also extends the validity of those owning five-year licenses to 10 years with required conditions. Conditions like no violations and apprehension from the past five years should be met by the registrants. If there are, LTO cannot extend their licenses from five years to ten years," Dy said.
He said LTO-Davao is looking forward for faster transactions and registrations following the new law expanding the validity of drivers' licenses.