Solon Appeals for Digital Driver’s License Instead of Physical Card Amid Shortage
Representative Wilbert Lee suggested a digital driver’s license instead of a physical one amid the plastic card shortage.
In the House Committee on Transportation’s hybrid hearing on the existence of a digital driver’s license instead of a physical driver’s license in the country, Lee suggested at the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) and the Land Transportation Office. According to Lee, if a digital driver’s license is available, it is possible to use it instead of a card.
“Is there any way DICT maybe can answer this that in the future it won’t even be possible now for next year when the physical driver’s license will be totally lost,” said Lee, based on the report of ABS-CBN.
The physical card is not being phased out, according to the Land Transportation Office (LTO). LTO Chief Jay Art Tugade stated that there is another idea to establish a digital license as an alternative to the physical card to make it easier for people to carry the license with them in case they lose the physical card.
“For now what we have plans is just to create an alternative to the physical card, which is the digital license to make it easier for people to carry the license with them just in case they lose the physical card, but maganda po ang suggestion,” according to LTO Chief Jay Art Tugade.
Obtaining a driver’s license currently costs P600. According to the LTO, around P480 million is spent on physical driver’s licenses each year. Meanwhile, due to scarcity, around 5.2 million driver’s license holders will be handed a temporary permit printed on paper rather than a plastic card.
Tugade stated that the agency will run out of plastic cards by the end of April since it only had 147,000 pieces in stock. Those applying for or renewing their driver’s licenses will be impacted as well. The 5.2 million figure alludes to the LTO’s backlog in granting plastic card licenses.
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