What’s new with the LTO’s certificate of registration?

By Melvin Magadia for Automart.PH

METRO MANILA, – Have you registered your car recently?

If not, chances are you haven’t seen the new certificate of registration (CR) that the Land Transportation Office now uses. It is now larger than the palm-sized yellow cards that drivers used to have.

The new and improved CR is as big as a Philippine Statistics Authority birth certificate or a full sheet of paper. With this, it will become at par with certificates issued by other government agencies.

The LTO is hoping that this will reduce the likelihood of losing the CR and requesting for a duplicate.

What's with the new look?

In a memorandum by LTO Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante dated February 5, 2021, the agency announced the new look of the CR.

This is in line with the implementation of the Land Transportation Management System (LTMS), which is the new online system designed to make transactions with the agency easier and faster.

In addition, the new look is designed to make the certificate more compliant with the new Philippine National Standard classifications and the new license codes. Moreover, the LTO said that they are hoping that the changes will make the vehicle certificate of registration future-proof.

It is worth noting that the new memo only covers vehicles registered after February 15, 2021, so if your registration is earlier than that, you don’t have to worry.

Nevertheless, you might want to have a copy of the said memo and keep it in your glove box. It may be the only thing that can save you from extortion for having the “wrong” certificate of registration.

What’s in, what’s out?

Under the new certificate of registration, we will see new pieces of information.

It will include standard details such as vehicle classification (private, for hire and others). These details used to be indicated in the Official Receipt.

Aside from that, in line with Philippine National Standards on the classification and definition of power-driven vehicles, the new CR will also include the vehicle category designations (L1, L2, M1 and others). These are already detailed in the new driver’s license.

Moreover, the new certificate of registration includes special categories, such as maximum power in kilowatts for electric vehicles, year model and year rebuilt. For imported used vehicles, the new certificate will include information on the oldest part fitted on the car. In addition, there is an additional space for remarks on the vehicle.

For electric vehicles, the serial number on the electric motor will be what is reflected under the engine number. In the case of “for hire” vehicles, information on passenger capacity has also been added and should be strictly followed at all times.

The denomination has been removed and replaced by body type. Also, the body number has been replaced by vehicle type (car, UV, SUV, bus, truck, motorcycle/tricycle or trailer).

The color of the vehicle is now included in the new CR as it is a vital vehicle identifier. Shipping weight, net capacity and the number of cylinders have also been removed. However, the new CR still includes the vehicle identification number.

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