City officials requested the City Legal Office to draft a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the city government and the Land Transportation Office – Department of Transportation-Cordillera Administrative Region (LTO-DOTr-CAR) for the disposition of confiscated license plates and driver’s licenses deposited with the Baguio City Police Office–Traffic Enforcement Unit (BCPO-TEU).
Under Resolution No. 621, series of 2022, local legislators stated that during previous deliberations, lawyer Krystel Grace V. Sanchez, representing DOTr-CAR regional director Francis Ray Almora, suggested for a MOA to be entered between the city government and the DOTr-Car in order that the confiscated license plates and driver’s licenses are tagged in their system for the issuance of the needed alarm to see to it that the city could collect the corresponding fines and penalties in the implementation of local ordinances regarding transportation violations.
Earlier, the city’s legislative body decided to invite personalities to appear before the body to discuss the authority to confiscate driver’s licenses and license plates and to be clarified regarding the sacks of confiscated and unclaimed license plates stored at the BCPO-TEU.
The council, through Ordinance No. 109, series of 2021, reduced the amount of fines for all unpaid traffic violations issued on or before December 31, 2020 for a period of 3 months in the city as an opportunity for traffic violators to pay their outstanding penalties and subsequently claim and use their driver’s licenses and plate numbers.
Section 4 of this ordinance provides that driver’s licenses or motor vehicle number plates not redeemed within the redemption period shall be forwarded to the LTO for proper action and disposal.
The BCPO-TEU had been inquiring from the city government on the appropriate steps that should be undertaken to properly dispose these unclaimed license plates confiscated by law enforcers through the years to help in clearing their office from the stockpile and allow motor vehicle owners to use their license plate numbers for their respective vehicles.
