While causing a hassle and extra expenses on the part of vehicle owners who have to line up at the LTO, the senator said, the project would surely make a fortune for the favored supplier of the new plates. “It looks like business,” he said, and the “captive market” would be the vehicle owners who must cough up P450 each for a pair of new plates. Of this amount, P380 goes to the manufacturer while P70 goes to the DOTC as “administration fee.” As to the DOTC’s explanation that the new plates would improve a car’s security against theft, Recto said: “A plate can never be a talisman or an anticarnapping device. Even (congressmen’s) cars that bear the No. 8 plates get stolen.” But in a joint statement Friday, the DOTC and LTO maintained that the new license plates would have safety features such as tamper-proof bolts that would permanently attach them to the vehicle, reflectorized sheeting to make them visible even from a distance and from any angle; and a “third-plate” sticker which would display the plate numbers on windshields and could not be torn off without leaving a trace. These features would curb illegal or colorum operations that become possible when plates are easily removed and transferred to another vehicle, the agencies said, noting that car theft syndicates had been known to engage in such schemes. Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/585684/dotc-car-plates-project-slammed#ixzz2w1RJxT7o Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 09:31:00 +0000