Vanity Plates in the Philippines — Everything you need to know

Vanity plates in the Philippines are a bit of a controversial topic. For one, it costs a lot of money to get one, and on the other hand, there are also some non-standard vanity plates that are not issued by the LTO. 

The official vanity plate issued by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) is called the Optional Motor Vehicle Special Plates (OMVSP), which requires car owners to go through a few necessary hurdles for their vehicles to be legally allowed with a custom plate number.

The officially issued OMVSPs are available for private vehicles like sedans, hatchbacks, wagons, SUVs, AUVs, pickups, and more. Your car doesn’t even need to be brand new in order to secure an official vanity plate, either. Here’s a list according to the LTO: 

• Cars
• Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV)
• Asian Utility Vehicles (AUV)
• Sports Pick-up
• Commuter Vans

Meanwhile, public utility vehicles as well as any vehicle above the four-wheel category will be excluded from being allowed a vanity plate. 

• Public utility Vehicles
• Cargo Trucks (private/for hire)
• Service vehicle (hotel, limousines, tourist vehicles, rent-a-car, ambulance, and funeral hearse)
• Vintage Vehicle
• Government Vehicle
• Diplomatic/OE Vehicle
• Used Imported/Surplus MV
• MV with more than 4-wheel category

First of all, your car needs to be registered with the office. So that means that you have to go through the gauntlet of tasks in order to get your vehicle registered for use on Philippine roads. Once that is done, you may proceed to the MID-Computer Section, at the LTO Central Office in East Avenue, Quezon City, or at any Regional (RO) or District Office (DO). 

Remember to bring these documents along with you if you’re applying: 

• Duly accomplished OMVSP application form by the owner or duly authorized representative.
• A certified true copy of the Official Receipt (OR)/Certificate of Registration (CR), issued by the TDO
• Certification by the TDO that no plates have been issued to the motor vehicle together with the official receipt of payment of the certification fee 
• Sales Invoice (in lieu of other documents to authenticate the year model or to determine whether the motor vehicle is brand new)
• The ID of the Authorized Representative or Owner
• Authorization Letter from Owner (If Applicable)

Once applied for, there are a few things to consider in terms of price with regard to vanity plates based on the Memorandum Circular No. 2022-2335

IV. ACQUISITION AND PRICING SCHEME 

Under this program, the owner of the covered brand-new motor vehicle or its duly authorized representative may apply at any authorized LTO Regional/District Offices for an OMVSP pair. The price and the scheme of the OMVSP shall be as follows:

• PhP 15,000.00 for Three (3) Alpha and Three (3) Numeric characters: Any Three (3) Alpha combination + Triple Numeric except 000, or Any Three (3) Alpha combination + any Three (3) Numeric combination which are not yet issued as series. 
• PhP 25,000.00 for Three (3) Alpha and Two (2) Numeric characters: Any Three (3) Alpha combination + Two (2) Numeric combination except 00. 
• PhP 35,000.00 for Three (3) Alpha and Four (4) Numeric characters: Any Three (3) Alpha combination + Quadruple Numeric except 0000 or Any Three (3) Alpha combination + any Four (4) Numeric combination which are not yet issued as series. 

Following a period of about 7 working days, residents within Metro Manila will receive their plates, while territories outside of the Metro should expect a longer lead time. 

As noted in the memorandum, custom plates cannot have all zeros (0). Though, a series of the same letters look to be available (if available and approved by the LTO). With that being said, all requests will be subject to the approval of the LTO. Offensive, sexual, lewd, racist, or plate requests with bad or inappropriate connotations will be denied. 

Take note, however, that buying an OMVSP does don’t grant the vehicle it is registered to immunity from the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP), otherwise known as number coding. The standard rulings will still follow based on the ending number of your vehicle’s plate. 

• 1-2 Monday 
• 3-4 Tuesday 
• 5-6 Wednesday 
• 7-8 Thursday 
• 9-0 Friday 

As it stands, custom plates are limited to conduction number plates that need to meet size and clarity regulations. As such, unless given specific permission by certain government agencies like the PNP-HPG or LTO, custom plates are not allowed especially those that do not help identify a vehicle. 

As such, either the conduction number or the official license plate number of a vehicle must be displayed. Even then, permission must be granted in order to use a non-standard or third-party plate number with a vehicle. 

There are certain individuals and car owners that are granted special plates by the government. These include red-lettered plate numbers that signify that it is a government vehicle, blue plates that signify that it is a diplomatic vehicle or any number of plate numbers under Executive Order No. 287. Usually, these plates only contain a few digits and alphanumerical characters. As such, there are certain plate numbers that cannot be registered with vanity plates.