The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has ordered a total stop to the privately run Stradcom LTO-IT System, moving every driver's license and motor vehicle transaction to the government-owned Land Transportation Management System (LTMS). Two memoranda dated September 10, 2026 — Memorandum Nos. MVL-2026-207 and MVL-2026-208 — direct all regional, district, and extension offices still on the old platform to "immediately cease the use of the LTO-IT System" and process transactions "exclusively through the LTMS."
The cutover closes out a government-IT arrangement that has run, in one form or another, since 1998 — and ends the ₱169.06 "computer fee" that Stradcom's system added to every covered transaction.
What the September 10 memoranda cover
Memorandum No. MVL-2026-208 moves motor vehicle registration renewals and all driver's license transactions to LTMS. That includes new license applications, renewals, duplicates and replacements, changes of information, and miscellaneous services. Memorandum No. MVL-2026-207 ends Stradcom use at the 19 Enhanced Driver's Licensing System pilot sites and 42 temporary offsite printing offices, as reported by Zigwheels Philippines.
The full list of transactions now handled only on LTMS covers:
- New motor vehicle registrations, including do-it-yourself processing
- Motor vehicle registration renewals
- Driver's license applications, renewals, duplicates, and replacements
- Changes of information and record corrections
- Ownership transfers, encumbrance registrations, and cancellations
- Vehicle classification changes and substitute registrations
- Certificate-of-stock report processing
- Online license renewals through the eGovPH app
LTO offices were also told to report any system limitations and technical issues they hit during the transition — a signal the agency expects some rough edges while the single-system setup settles in.
The ₱169.06 fee — and the billions behind it
Each transaction that passed through the Stradcom system carried a ₱169.06 computer fee on top of official LTO charges. The Commission on Audit found ₱13.38 billion in such fees charged between 2019 and 2025. Coalition 169, a citizens' group named after the fee, estimates that collections have reached as much as ₱28.56 billion since Stradcom's original concession expired in February 2013 — money the group argues should be refunded to motorists. Those refund claims have not yet been decided by any court or agency.
Why it took an Ombudsman order
The government signed a build-own-operate agreement with Stradcom in 1998. The concession formally lapsed in February 2013, but the company kept operating under later arrangements. The LTO accepted the replacement LTMS in 2021 — developed by German firm Dermalog Identification Systems GmbH — yet continued running both systems in parallel.
The Office of the Ombudsman ordered the old system discontinued on May 29 this year. Even after that, LTO Executive Director Martin Ontog told lawmakers in August that the agency would maintain both platforms. The September 10 memoranda from Assistant Secretary Markus V. Lacanilao, who now heads the LTO, reversed that position outright. Lacanilao said the shift is meant to make services "faster, more organized, and more reliable," according to Zigwheels Philippines' report on the directive.
The change also lands amid accountability moves inside the agency: former LTO chiefs Vigor Mendoza II and Teofilo Guadiz III were preventively suspended in August and face administrative charges of grave misconduct.
What changes the next time you renew
For motorists, the practical difference is where — and what — you pay. With Stradcom out of the transaction flow, the ₱169.06 add-on that applied to transactions processed on its system goes with it, whether you renew at a district office or online through the eGovPH app. Two threads are still open, though: a Supreme Court ruling on the Dermalog contract behind LTMS remains pending, and Coalition 169's refund push for fees already collected is unresolved. Expect occasional processing hiccups in the coming weeks, too — the memoranda themselves anticipate technical issues as offices complete the switch.
