If you're one of the many vehicle owners that have paid for and are waiting for their plates, here is a long overdue -but still very much welcome- piece of news.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) will today inaugurate the new LTO Plate Making Facility at their headquarters along East Avenue. With the new facility, the LTO will be producting the plates in-house, as well as address the backlog of plates directly.

The DOTr says that the new LTO Plate Making Facility will have seven manual embossing machines. When running at full production, the DOTr says that the facility has a maximum daily capacity of 22,000 plates.

Eventually, the DOTr will take delivery of an automated embossing machine in July 2018 which will greatly enhance the production capacity of the facility. The automated machine will have a maximum capacity of 12,000 plates per day.

The machines were part of a contract with Trojan Computer Forms Manufacturing Corporation and JH Tonnjes E.A.S.T. GmbH. The joint venture won the contract for the procurement of motor vehicle and motorcycle license plates to address the backlog issue.

The delivery of license plates to vehicle owners was put on hold after legal issues were allegedly found with the procurement process under the previous administration. News reports vary regarding the number of plates that have yet to be delivered by the Land Transportation Office, though most sources state that the backlog is likely over 3 million plates.

Interestingly enough, today's inauguration of the LTO Plate Making Facility coincides with the 106th anniversary of the Land Transportation Office.