Filipinos are buying up to 8,000 new motorcycles a day, of which 40 percent end up in Metro Manila streets, the Land Transportation Office said Monday.

“We are talking about 160,000 new motorcycles a month ang nadadagdag sa kalye natin,” LTO chief Asec. Vigor Mendoza II said in a TeleRadyo Serbisyo interview. 

Data from the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department earlier showed the Philippines had a total of 11.6 million motor vehicles registered with the LTO in 2018, of which 62 percent or 7.2 million are motorcycles. These include motorcycles with side cars (tricycles) for hire and non-conventional motorcycles. 

The number of motorcycles in the Philippines has steadily increased since 2019 after the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board launched a pilot study allowing the operation of motorcycles for the transportation of passengers and goods, including parcels and mail.

A bill seeking to regulate motorcycle taxis hurdled the House of Representatives on third reading last July.

Mendoza said the LTO still has a backlog of 9 million license plates for motorcycles, down from 12.4 million in 2022.

The LTO also has some 200,000 vehicle license plates that remain unclaimed. Mendoza said the agency is eyeing to distribute the license plates directly to the owners since some may no longer want to exchange their temporary plates to skirt the number coding system.

“Kami na mismo magdadala ng plaka sa motorista. Baka ayaw nila kunin kasi may number coding. Nakasanayan ‘yung temporary plate kasi di sila hinuhuli,” he said.

He said some 53,000 drivers have yet to exchange their paper licenses with plastic ones.