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DRIVER’S license holders who wrongly indicated
information about their age when applying for a license at the Land
Transportation Office can soon correct such entries without the
one-year suspension penalty.
LTO Chief Reynaldo Berroya said
the agency is studying the possibility of lowering the penalty for
license holders who have deliberately changed their birth dates.
“I already made a
recommendation to DOTC [Department of Transportation and
Communication Secretary [Larry] Mendoza, regarding the lowering of
the penalty and it is up to the decision of the secretary,” said
Berroya during the celebration of the agency’s 95th anniversary.
Under LTO rules, driver’s
license holders who want to correct their age must surrender their
license at the LTO main and a new license will not be issued until
after one year.
Berroya said instead of
suspension he has recommended that drivers be subjected to a fine
with the amount to be determined by the LTO.
“In this way driver’s need
not wait for a year for a new license,” he explained, adding that
he believes there are thousands of drivers facing such a problem
with their license.
At present the LTO has lowered
the required age to qualify for a driver’s license from the
original 18 years old to 17 years old.
He said a driver’s license is
one of the most important ID’s being used by individuals, which is
why it is necessary that all information stated in the license
should be correct.
In a related development, Berroya
said the study regarding the plan to extend the validity of a
driver’s license from three years to five years is almost complete
and that the committee is set to release their recommendation soon.
“We feel that license renewal
every three years is very inconvenient and costly to drivers
especially the professional license holders who are mostly public
utility drivers,” said Berroya.
The plan to extend the validity
of a driver’s license was also introduced during the time of
former LTO chief Anneli Lontoc, however, the extension was limited
to motor vehicle drivers who didn’t have a single traffic
violation for three consecutive years.
Lontoc wanted to give the
extension as a reward for drivers who observed driving or traffic
rules and as an incentive to encourage others.
But under the new plan all
driver’s license holders, regardless of their traffic violation
records, will be qualified for extension because the plan is to make
the three-year validity to five years a permanent policy revision of
the agency.
--Jefferson Antiporda
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