DFA and LTO Launch New Diplomatic License Plates

PASAY CITY, 01 December 2022 — The Department of Foreign Affairs, in coordination with the Land Transportation Office, has launched the new design of diplomatic license plates.

The revised diplomatic license plate bears blue numeric characters on white reflectorized background and a blue line frame. It has a total of seven numeric characters, with a space in between the third and fourth number.

The change in the diplomatic license plate numbering system was made for a more viable license plate assignment scheme for the Diplomatic Missions, Consular Missions, and accredited International Organizations based in the Philippines.

In view of the total number of vehicles that require initial or renewal of registration, DFA, through its Office of Protocol, and LTO shall have a transitory period of one year from September 2022. This means that old diplomatic license plates and OEV plates from the previous system will be valid only up to September 2023.

Diplomatic vehicles with diplomatic plates are exempt from the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program of the MMDA, otherwise known as number coding, to allow their unimpeded passage on local roads. However, vehicles bearing diplomatic plates and their drivers are subject to existing traffic rules and regulations and are, therefore, subject to traffic fines once a violation is proven, since the use of public roads is imbued with public safety considerations. END