LTO Car Registration Renewal 2021

This has been the 5th time I've gone through the car registration renewal process of the LTO. I was expecting the usual steps.

1. Get emission testing certificate
2. Get CTPL insurance
3. Go to LTO and have a technician help accomplish the MVIR form
4. Have documents assessed
5. Pay the Cashier
6. Claim your OR/CR

Left the house at around 9:00 A.M. and arrived at the emission testing center at around 10:00 A.M. Testing was done in around 15 minutes. The test center even offered insurance coverage so I was done with steps 1 and 2. 

At the LTO, after finding a suitable parking spot, the technician was able to stencil the required info to our MVIR form in around 20 minutes. I then had to check out a checklist of required documents and leave this with the security guard who attached a number to my documents.

This is when my 5-hour wait began. This was amazing considering I had gone through the same registration process when the country was already experiencing COVID-19. And I also experienced what is was like before COVID-19. And this was the first time I've had to wait this long. Before, my worst experience was probably around 3-hours of waiting time.

There were multiple times when different people would go to the cashier's window and ask if their name was already called. This was very different from my experiences before. Maybe, it is high time that the Quezon City government help the LTO improve their queuing system. Not having any kind of tracking number, and completely surrendering your documents without any proof that you've already submitted all of these to the LTO, for me, creates anxiety. What if the documents were lost in the process? How do I prove that I've submitted them already? How do I track where the documents are in case I want to leave? etc. etc.

So, when people go to the Cashier window and ask if their name was already called, this further causes delays in the process. The cashier personnel has to act as customer service and re-check the documents that have been called to verify if the person was already bypassed. They then have to direct the person back to the assessment window.

There were also cases wherein an LTO representative would call out the name of a person who was already waiting at the cashier's area and inform that person that some of his documents were missing. This could have been avoided if the documents were assessed properly at the time of submission.

I can also understand why some of the people waiting were worried. The waiting area can be considered an enclosed area, and during the time of COVID-19, nobody wants to be stuck in a room full of people, even if the room is at 50% capacity. So some people would rather wait in open-space areas than in that room, and this was the reason why they'd have to pester the cashier every so often.

After what seemed like an eternity, my name was finally called and I had to pay 1,610 pesos. Combine this amount with 500 pesos for emission testing, 1,000 pesos for the insurance and the 50 pesos tip to the technician, and the total amount spent was around 3,160 pesos.

The cashier issued the new printed OR which looks like a photocopy of some receipt. There was no CR issued. According to the LTO personnel, this was part of the new system. And this was also the reason why it took a long time for registration. (Sounds fishy, since a black and white print-out on regular bond paper should take less time and resources than a more elaborate colored OR and CR. But that's life in the Philippines)

So, the next time you have the car's registration renewed, you might want to take along a book, or your mobile phone for entertainment. Expect a long time of waiting.

LTO Car Registration Renewal 2018

It has been three years since our car was registered for us by the selling company. Now, I had to renew the car's registration. Note that the amounts I share here are for a SEDAN. I checked the LTO Website for the registration renewal requirements which are as follows.

• Photocopy of Certificate of Registration (CR) and Official Receipt of payment (OR)
• Appropriate Insurance Certificate of Cover (COC) or CTPL
• Duly accomplished and approved Motor Vehicle Inspection Report (MVIR)
• Certificate of Emission Compliance (CEC)
• Plate Verification is needed before the emission center can conduct testing if you still don't have a license plate
• Taxpayer’s Identification Number

You can only get the MVIR once you are at LTO, East Avenue. And the initial assessor will only give you one if you have the OR/CR, CTPL and CEC.

We got our CEC from RLD Auto Sources Emission Testing Center. Testing was done in roughly 10 minutes. But before we could even have our vehicle tested, they asked us to get our PLATE VERIFICATION from the district office where our car was first registered. This was at the NCR District Office along G. Araneta Avenue. So instead of just 10 minutes, it took us an addition hour just to get this verification because our vehicle still has no license plate until now. This has something to do with COA and a TRO. So, on our PLATE VERIFICATION form, it says FOR PLATE ALLOCATION - NO PLATE AVAILABLE. There was no payment needed for this form.

After getting the PLATE VERIFICATION, and returning to the emission testing center, our vehicle was tested. They attached a smoke emission measuring device to the car's exhaust. The technician revved the motor several times and took a picture of the rear end of the car. I then had to pay 450 pesos.

Next stop was the LTO at East Avenue. The registration requirements was checked by an assessor. He then told me that the Insurance Certificate of Cover I brought with me, the one issued by Standard Insurance, was not appropriate since it did not have the CTPL term under the items covered. I asked him if VTPL-BI and VTPL-PD counted as CTPL. He said that CTPL was for pedestrians who might get hit by an accident. VTPL was for Bodily Injury and PD was for Personal Damage. (But I thought TPL meant Third Party Liability?) Not wanting to prolong our debate, I decided to purchase a CTPL from Milestone Guaranty and Assurance Corp. whose stall was conveniently located a few feet away from the assessor. They charged me 1,250 pesos for the CTPL. Later on, I would call up Standard Insurance and inquire if CTPL was not part of my insurance coverage. They confirmed that it wasn't. But I could have it added the next time I renewed our insurance with them for an additional 610 pesos. For more info, you can read on this article. (What pisses me off is that I thought a Comprehensive Insurance would include CTPL aside from the other things it covers. Apparently, not.)

After buying the CTPL, I was awarded the MVIR along with a technician who would stencil the chassis number and engine number of our vehicle on the form. After he did this, I had to give the documents to window F to be evaluated. And then, I had to wait at window L, the cashier's window, and I had to pay 1930 pesos for the registration renewal. I was then supposed to claim the stickers and plates from window M. But since no stickers and plates were available, I was advised to check back with the LTO at some other future time to claim these.

CEC      450
CTPL    1,250
LTO fee 1,930
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Total Amount Spent    3,630

And that was my LTO registration renewal experiance for 2018. I hope it helps you out.

Applying for a Student Permit at LTO

So you want to learn how to drive? And you've set your sights on a particular driving school. You're about to pay for the tuition fee when you find out that you need a Student's Permit in order to be able to study driving. How do you do it? (Note: the driving school might offer to do this for you at a higher price, but doing it yourself will take only about 318 pesos as of this writing, and about 2 to 4 hours, depending on the volume of applicants.)

So how do you go about getting a Student's Permit?

1. Familiarize yourself with the LTO License Application Form. I wouldn't advice you print it out since the personnel at the LTO Satellite will still ask you to fill out their forms with their authorization numbers stamped on the form. These numbers are absent from the online form. Still, you should be prepared to know the details being asked from the form. And remember to box shade, NOT CHECK, the checkboxes.
2. Try to get to the office early. There will be a long line for the Application Form, but to get one, you will have to present an original government I.D. and also a photocopy of this I.D. So photocopy your PRC, Passport, SSS, etc. I.D. It is important that the I.D. you use indicates your date of birth. Otherwise, you will have to prove that you are 17 years old or older using your birth certificate. Just bring a photocopy of whatever credentials you plan on presenting to avoid having to go out of the building and looking for a Xerox vendor.
3. You will be given a queue number. Wait for it to show up on the digital display. There are chairs available for you to wait on. Use the waiting time to verify that everything you wrote on the Application Form is correct.
4. There are several evaluator windows - and the person at this window will check your application for errors, and may ask you to read an oath about being a responsible driver. You have to read it aloud. After doing this, you will have to wait at the chairs again until your name is called.
5. The next window is for data corrections - I think you are called to this window if the person typing in your data from the application form to the computer can't understand your hand-writing. So, write legibly.
6. The next window if for taking your picture and signature. Be ready with your best smile. And writing with a digital pen is like using one of those fat pencils back in elementary. Make sure your signature doesn't overshoot the digital pad. Again, after doing this, you will have to wait at the chairs again until your name is called.
7. The next window is for payment. Try to being the exact amount needed, otherwise, you might have to go out and buy something, just to get change. Again, that's 318 pesos as of this writing. It was strange that they did not issue the official receipt at this window. You had to wait for it at the release window - along with your Student Permit. If for some reason, your name is not called at the releasing window, you have no proof that you paid. (Something to consider for the people working at LTO for process improvement).
8. Finally, the releasing window. Sign the sheet indicating that you were able to receive your Student Permit with the Official Receipt and you're done. Note that if you lose the official receipt, you will need to pay again if you decide to apply for a Non-professional license (you can do this after a month from the date you received your permit). So keep the permit and receipt together at all times. Also, you have to apply for a Non-professional license within a year from the issuance of your Student Permit. Otherwise, you have to apply for a Student Permit again.

In terms of improvement, here are some suggestions for the people working at LTO.

1. Please improve ventilation and air conditioning. Although there are A/C units, either these are not working, or LTO is trying to cut down on their electric bill.
2. The queue number issued at the beginning should be the number displayed at each window. In my experience, the personnel at the window had to read the person's name via a microphone, just to call the person to the next step. This can be confusing, especially when there's a lot of ambient noise or if you're chatting with other applicants.
3. And again, please issue a receipt upon payment - it could be a provisional receipt if you cannot issue the official receipt. This should serve as protection for the applicant, in case his application is misplaced between the payment and releasing steps of the process.

I hope this guide will help alleviate your concerns as you apply for a driver's Student Permit. God bless you!

How to Add More Voices for Text-to-Speech In Windows 7 32-bit

Warning: The following steps involve editing the registry. Continue at your own risk.

This tutorial is based on Voran's guide found here. The steps he outlines is for Windows 7 64-bit. If you have a 32-bit system, then follow the instructions below. Also, please note that I was only able to make this work with US voices when used with Microsoft Word. For an excellent tutorial on how to enable text-to-speech in Word, watch this video.

Now, on with the steps.

1. Download the SpeechPlatformRuntime.msi file for x86 systems from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27225

2. Just double-click the file and follow the installation instructions.
3. Download the two US voices Helen and ZiraPro from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224 . As I said earlier, these were the only voices I got to work.

I tried the procedure with GB_Hazel and CA_Heather but no joy. If you get these voices to work, please leave a link or comment below on how you were able to make these work.

4. Again, just double click each .msi installer for each voice and follow the installation instructions.
5. Now it is time to edit the registry. Run regedit. Initially, if you go under Under - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices
you should only see Microsoft's default voice Anna. While if you look under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0\Voices
you should see the two voices you installed (Helen and ZiraPro). If you're wondering why my image has four voices, refer to my comments above.

Our goal is to edit the registry so that the image above becomes like the following image

 
6. To do that, right click the "Tokens" folder under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0\Voices
and choose Export. Save this file to your desktop as voices1.reg so it will be easy to find later.

7. Open voices1.reg in Notepad. Then do a Find-and-replace. Enter \Speech Server\v11.0\ into the "Find What" field and enter \Speech\ into the "Replace With" field. Click "Replace All". Then save the file. Note, after you save the file, its icon might change into a notepad icon, meaning you might have saved it as a text file instead of a registry file. If this happens, make sure you save the file with a .reg extension instead of a .txt. If the file still won't open using the registry editor, try right-clicking it and opening using regedit.

8. Double click the newly saved voices1 registry file. You will then receive a registry warning prompt. Click Yes.
9. To check if you were successful, go to Control Panel > Ease of Access > Speech Recognition > Text to Speech.

10. You should now be able to select additional voices (Helen or ZiraPro) aside from Microsoft Anna in the dropdown box. You can then press on Preview Voice to check if they sound right. If you're satisfied with the voice, then click on OK. Now, you should be able to use the new voice to read portions of your word document. Really useful in proofreading, and hopefully less annoying than Anna.

I hope this tutorial was able to help you out. Feel free to leave me feedback below.

Addendum: I tried changing the voices in Narrator and it was able to recognize GB Hazel and CA Heather. But MS Word still wouldn't recognize these two non-US voices. Again, if you are able to come up with a solution to this issue, please let me know. Thanks.