LUNA, Apayao—The Land Transportation Office – Apayao District Office has already reached a swooping 3,000 and still counting licensees this 3rd week of February, a 60% increase of applicants after just a few months of having its own printing machine for the 5-year validity driver’s license card.
Officer-in-Charge District Head of LTO Apayao Brendo Failoga said the numbers of licensees have evidently increased now that cards are available and ready for release for just few minutes of waiting.
“As of February 23, we already have exactly 3000 released cards for the 5-year validity driver’s license and the numbers will surely increase further until the end of February,” Failoga stressed.
According to Failoga, LTO Apayao has started printing the 5-year validity driver’s license cards only on November 20, 2017, a simultaneous printing and/or releasing of cards to all LTO district offices in the country which have printing machine for the first time.
In normal processing of licenses, the card issuing time from encoding to printing is less than 10 minutes. This new license’s card has more security features. The data are now engraved by laser engraver machines into the card material, which guarantees none erasure and prevents from alteration.
LTO-Apayao said that with 32 security features and its fingerprint biometrics, the license is currently the most secured identification card in the country, unlike the previous supplier that uses PVC type cards. The DERMALOG Company as the new supplier is using a “more durable” polycarbonate material.
For those who are holding an official receipt in lieu of the driver’s license card of 5-year validity and those who already applied and renewed at LTO Apayao, they are advised to visit the said office at Luna, Apayao from Mondays to Fridays to convert the temporary licenses into driver’s license card. Personal appearance is compulsory as there will be picture taking and enrolment of fingerprint biometrics.
It can be recalled that LTO Apayao started its operation on August 1995. It was only on September 21, 2015 that they had a printer for the 3-year validity driver’s license card which was lately upgraded into 5-year validity driver’s licensed card. BY GERRIAHZON S. SEBASTIAN
