Philippines Books

GETTING YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE
TRANSFERRED

If you visit the Philippines for less than ninety days you are entitled to drive a vehicle, similar to what your home license allows, without the need for an International License or to obtain a Philippine Driver’s License.  If you plan to stay, and drive, longer than three months, then I would advise you to
obtain the local document.

Many might wonder why on earth you would want to drive here anyway, given the seeming chaos on the roads and the cheap and available alternatives. Quite frankly, I have only ridden with one or two Filipino driver’s who I would say come close to my skill and experience with a motor vehicle.  Most
drivers here are self taught and haven’t a clue about road safety.  Neither have the pedestrians, dogs, chickens, carabaos, goats etc.

The policing of the road rules is arbitrary at best and everyone does pretty
much what they like, with scant regard for the consequences.  When God is protecting them, they have little need for decent brakes, seat belts or common sense.  The amazing thing is that there are not more accidents than occur.  Don’t believe those who tell you the accident rate here is low. It isn’t! If you drive often enough and in the major cities, you will see plenty of prangs!  Official figures are misleading because few accidents are reported. What keeps the death toll down is that many of the accidents are low speed “fender benders” in heavy traffic.  However, I have seen more than  my share
of higher speed fatal accidents on the major carriageways and country roads, usually involving trucks, buses, jeepneys and other large vehicles carrying multiple passengers.  Another factor is the Filipino attitude is generally much less insistent on “right of way” than it is in the west.  I have often said if you could blend the discipline of the western driver with the attitude of the Filipino, you would have the safest roads in the world.  The best advice is to never be in a hurry and always expect the dumbest, most dangerous option to be the one chosen by Dong in his jeepney.

I once offered the theory of the “Rule of Threes” as to who give way to whom.  If you have three times as many passengers, three axles or more or three times the gross tonnage, you have right of way.  Three times the speed of the rest of the traffic, three quarters of your vehicle or more over the center
line or three times the decibel level from your horn and you are sweet! Number of wheels helps too. Two wheels gives way to three, three to four and four to multiple axled vehicles, with a fudge factor for vehicle width and velocity.  Cost of vehicle plays a part, the more expensive your car, the more
arrogantly you assume everyone must get out of your way.

So if you still insist on driving here and you have gone past ninety days, what do you do?  You go to the LTO, or Land Transportation Office.  Not every LTO issues licenses, make sure it is a larger, regional office.  The main LTO in Cebu now issues the plastic card “permanent license” the same day,
allegedly.  I waited 8 months for mine after being told it would take six at the Danao branch.  In the interim I had a paper “temporary license”.

As a foreigner you can’t have a “professional” license as this is only for those who earn a living driving, like taxi drivers and this and most all land transportation jobs are off limits to foreigners.  So you get a “non-professional” license.  Make sure you specifiy motorcycle and car if you want to ride a
motorbike. Even if your home license isn’t endorsed for a motorbike, they should give you the “restriction” on your Filipino license. (1 and 2)  Once at the LTO, push through the milling crowd and go to the window marked licenses. Ignore the “fixers”, they’ll only cause you grief. Usually your
foreigner face will get you inside asap.  Ask for the form to transfer your license, fill it out, or up, as they say here.  Then you will go for a drug test.  Nearby will be several “Diagnostic Centers” where you will pay P250-300 and pee in a cup. I was told I was drug free but four months pregnant.  Actually,
my sample wasn’t even checked!  Then you need a health check.  At Mandaue there are several doctors offices nearby where you go and have your blood pressure checked, answer some questions, do an eye test and that’s it.  

At Danao I had to tramp around the municipal offices paying for a stamp, then getting a receipt, then being checked etc. Mandaue was much simpler. Once you have the drug test receipt and the health receipt, return to the LTO.  They will then get you to copy the answers for the test onto the back of
your form. Only copy answers 1-40, as 41-60 are for professional licenses. Copying the answers is the authorised procedure, so don’t make a big deal about it.

They don’t have the resources to properly test anyone, which is evident on the roads.  So once you copy the answers, you go and get a photo taken and they print out your temporary license.  You pay P500 and then get another photo taken for the permanent license, ready in six months. Apparently they have to be sent to Manila for some reason, although the LTO offices in Cebu and Davao (not Danao) can issue the same day.  Given Mandaue LTO is about five miles from the Cebu LTO, I wonder why they can’t…..nevermind, this is the Philippines.

So off you go and when you return in six months, hopefully your permanent licenese will be ready to be picked up.  It is valid for two to three years, depending when you had your last birthday, which will be the day used to calculate renewal. All up it should cost around P1000 or so, although the official fees on the LTO website don’t quite match what everyone pays.

Check out the government websites listed in another article this issue for more details and drive safely.  (The author was a Military Police Advanced Driving Instructor, specialising in Defensive and
Protection Driving, as well as having raced, rallied, instructed in off road driving for Land Rover Australia and driven well over a million kilometres accident free. As a Military Policeman he attended numerous fatal and non-fatal traffic accidents. He has also received advanced driving instruction from several civilian schools, driven in Europe, Asia the USA and New Zealand in addition to Australia.  He holds licenses for cars, trucks, forklifts, buses, motorbikes and armoured fighting vehicles, one of which he often wished he owned here in  Cebu.)