The much vaunted new car plates issued by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) that are supposed to be tamper-resistant with screws that ensure the plates are permanently attached to the vehicle have failed the stress test of the flashfloods caused by afternoon thunderstorms lately.
Car owners and motorists have turned to social media to air their grievances over the inferior quality of the car plates made of aluminum substrate which was procured for P3.8B by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). The new plates are two millimeters thicker than the old ones.
On June 19, Top Gear Philippines posted a report on its online site citing two incidents of damaged license plates caused by floodwaters.
Joel Buenrostro shared a photo of a bent license plate attached to his vehicle after he braved Thursday’s flashfloods. He posted : “This is what happened to my front plate when I drove through knee-deep flood this afternoon.”
“The plate was screwed onto the grill part of the bumper so when you go against the flood current, the water bounces to the radiator, pushing the water out of the grill so it naturally pushes the plate upward,” Buenrostro explained in another Facebook post.
He also asked Top Gear how he can fix the damaged plate that was screwed to the vehicle.
MANILA BULLETIN
