You’ve probably seen several posts on our Facebook page showing photos or videos of people getting creative with their vehicle’s license plates. Some would replace their legitimate license plates with temporary ones to evade the number-coding scheme.

Some vanity plates range from funny to downright nonsensical. Worse are the bold ones that don’t even bother to have their license plates installed at all.

This shows the utter disrespect some motorists have for our traffic laws. If we allow this to continue, how can we go after erring drivers or those involved in accidents?

Thankfully,  the Land Transportation Office got tired of being a laughingstock had enough and now reminds motorists to install license plates on their vehicles.

In a Facebook post, the agency reiterates that a motorist’s failure to attach a license plate to one’s vehicle violates Republic Act 4136 or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code of the Philippines. A P5,000 fine will be levied on vehicle owners who fail to attach the plates or to properly install these.

The agency admits that there’s still a backlog of license plates for motorcycles. However, the LTO claims it has a database of the plates released to respective vehicle owners.

This allows the LTO to verify if the license plates of a violator have already been released. It further claims that this backlog should be wiped out by—or hopefully before—July this year.

While this reminder is a great wake-up call to motorists, nothing has been said about the LTO’s plans to strictly implement this. Will a ‘reminder’ suffice to make vehicle owners follow the law?