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MANILA: Another 2.2 million plastic cards are scheduled to be delivered to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) within a month and a half to narrow the backlog on plastic-printed driver's licenses. 'After 45 days after the delivery of the 1 million, there will be around 2.2 million more plastic cards that will be delivered. So, this will be enough to address the backlog on driver's license,' Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista said during Wednesday's inspection at the LTO Central Office in Quezon City. These delivered plastic cards, he said, will still be inspected by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to check if they comply with standards and whether they are capable of lasting up to 10 years. 'There added security features which the LTO knows and at the same time, we also want the DOST to check if these plastic cards would last up to 10 years because as you all know, 10 years na maximum validity ng ating mga driver's license (the maximum validity of our driver's lic enses is now 10 years),' Bautista said. Once cleared by the DOST, he said, the cards will be delivered to LTO regional offices to be processed and will be ready for claiming by April 15. Some 1 million plastic cards were delivered to the LTO on Monday, after the Court of Appeals (CA) lifted the writ of preliminary injunction issued by a Quezon City court on the delivery of the remaining 3.2 million plastic cards from Banner Plastic, Inc. Bautista lauded the efforts of the LTO and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in coming up with strong arguments that led to the lifting of the injunction. In its decision, the CA said the lower court that issued the injunction order should not have entertained the case filed by the losing bidder since the administrative process of appeal was not observed when it immediately filed a case in court. 'The decision of the Court of Appeals only vindicated the decision of our Bids and Awards Committee. And we in the DOTr are elated that the Associate Justices of the Cou rt of Appeals agreed with the arguments we raised,' he said. Source: Philippines News Agency