The Land Transportation Office (LTO) announced today that motorists can now process their motor vehicle (MV) and motorcycle (MC) registration renewal online through the agency’s Land Transportation Management System (LTMS).
This is great news since motorists will no longer have to spend the whole day at an LTO branch just to process their renewal.
However, there’s a catch: not all are eligible for online registration renewal unless the following conditions have been met:
Plain renewal only
The LTO’s new online registration renewal only works if your vehicle is for ‘plain renewal’ only. What this means is that the system cannot accept renewals that will involve a change of ownership, renewal with pending traffic alarms, or renewals that involve a change of color, engine, or registration that includes updating the vehicle’s records.
Other than plain registration, you’ll need to visit the nearest LTO in your area.
Motorists must have an existing LTMS account
As with a normal online banking or food delivery app, the person who wishes to renew their vehicle’s registration online must have an existing LTMS portal login/account.
If you haven’t, just go to https://portal.lto.gov.ph, click on “register now” and follow the instructions.
MV or MC for renewal must be linked to the client’s LTMS account
For this to work, your vehicle’s information must already be linked to your LTMS account. If not, you’ll have to visit the nearest LTO branch and do the registration the old-fashioned way.
Last renewal must be through LTMS
Your MC or MV’s last renewal must have been processed using the agency’s LTMS. If not, you’ll need to do the renewal the old-fashioned way by lining up at the nearest LTO.
Must be the current owner
If you bought a second-hand MC or MV, by existing rules, you need to register the vehicle under your name. That being said, the LTO requires that the registered owner of the vehicle’s Certificate of Registration (CR) must be the current owner.
Only PMVIC inspection accepted
Though motorists can still use the emission testing report from a Private Emission Testing Center (PETC) when renewing the vehicle’s registration at an LTO branch, online renewal would only accept inspection done through a Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Center (PMVIC).
MV details must be updated
MC or MV details must be complete, including the latest plate issuance.
Insurance coverage must be validated
According to the LTO, your MC or MV’s Certificate of Coverage (COC) for the Compulsory Third Party Liability (CTPL) must be transmitted and validated by the Insurance Commission.
While we too are not exactly sure how this will work in the real world since getting a CTPL only involves the payment, COC, and receipt, it will be best to just get coverage from reputable insurance companies just to be on the safe side.
For now, these are just a few of the pieces of information we got from the LTO. We too have a lot of questions but let us save them for later. Since this is a fairly new program, it is inevitable that it will encounter some birthing pains within the next few weeks so let’s give LTO some slack in the meantime.
