Metro Manila —The Department of Transportation-Land Transportation Office (DOTr-LTO) said that the security features on the new driver’s license cards with five-year validity will address the issue of fake licenses.
LTO Chief Edgar Galvante said that the new license card, which is made of polycarbonate material, has a total of 32 security features –22 on the front and 10 at the back– to make it difficult for forgers to copy.
“Ang iba rito hindi makikita by naked eye. Kailangang may aparato para mabasa pero definitely hindi napakadaling gayahin kaya hopefully mawawala na itong mga fake licenses,” he said, noting that the processing of the card is “very technologically advanced.”
Among the security features of the new license include the 2-D barcode wherein the fingerprint of the owner is embedded along with his photo.
Apart from the new features, Asec. Galvante said that the LTO is studying to formulate a system wherein the validity of the license cards could last up to 10 years. Under the planned scheme, a driver who has not incurred any traffic violation can have the validity of his license extended up to ten years.
“Puwedeng ma extend ng 10 years ang kanyang lisensya o likewise maaring ma-cut pa ang kanyang pribilehiyo kung marami syang violation.
Magkakaroon kami ng demerit system na kung saan kung naabot na nya yung hangganan nung demerit ng hindi pa expired yung lisensya nya, maari itong ma-suspend kapag lumagpas sya sa allowable demerit,” the LTO chief said.
Meanwhile, DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade reminded officials and employees of LTO to couple the new system with faster and more efficient service, and warned them not to engage in any form of corruption.
“We see technology, as one aspect, of curbing, if not totally eliminating, “fixing” and corruption,” Sec. Tugade said.
During yesterday’s rollout of the new driver’s license, Tugade tested the new system of applying for a license card, which took only 10 minutes.
He said it should have been 4 to 5 minutes had he not intentionally inputted erroneous entries on the application form to test how fast and efficient the system is.
The Transportation head later destroyed the license card issued to him and instructed Galvante to erase the information from the LTO database since it was only for demonstration purposes. #30 | DOTr-PR
