My local provincial LTO tells me I cannot renew my licence there. All foreigners must get it done in Manila. they said. They showed me an LTO memo which explained that this is because there have been many fraudulent foreign licence conversions lately. Presumably only Manila LTOs are able to check our conversions are OK? I said that my UK licence was converted in 2010 and had 2 renewals since then. To no avail.

It is only a 2 or 3 hour trip for me but what if you're in Cebu or Mindanao?.

Knowing how government organisations often do things differently in their branches across the country, that may be the case with this. As it seems an onerous request to tell many foreigners residing in the provinces that they need to travel to Manila to just renew their driving licence.

Can anybody throw any light on this?

This is all very strange. I suggest that you interrogate the LTO website. If you haven't registered yet do so now. All you queries and concerns should answered there.

Definitely strange. The LTO portal no help. It's definitely an issue which is not being talked about. Which makes you think it's not being observed everywhere? I didn't talk to someone behind a counter. The person telling us had a top position. She recommended Las Pinas. Which we will go with. An inconvenience, but no choice.

Maybe applied for a while as there is a You tube video from last year from an Expat, also in Cavite, who tried to renew at his local LTO and was told to go to QC. But not then to any Manila LTO.

The LTO has got a new head and he has come out with new initiatives. Maybe this one not thought out enough. The lady telling us here had no answer as to whether people in Cebu and Mindanao need to travel to Manila to renew

If you are renewing a Philippine licence it shouldn't make any difference whether the holder is a native or a foreigner. I can understand that a more elaborate procedure needs to be followed when converting a foreign licence. Seems to me that someone is making up new rules as they go along.

While we're on strange how about these questions from the online exam you have to pass to renew your licence with 80%, 20 questions right out of 25?
Whether you're renewing for a car or motorcycle the same exam.
The majority are serious, like this


​​​​​​Bu t a fair number silly Eg




Taken from You tube. But two of them came up in my version of the exam.

I renewed my license a couple of months ago, not in Manila, yes some of those questions are more than a bit odd. I got 19 out of 25 first try but you are allowed 3 trys. You then need to wait a month before you can try again. Got 25 out of 25 on my second try because two or three of the questions I failed came up again and of course I knew the answers from the first try.

Well done!
And it seems you may have had good timing in not being forced to get your license renewed in Manila.

I’m planning on visiting LTO in Quezon City later this week to try to convert my UK license, hoping it’s not too complicated but will provide feedback when done

Same here, renewed at LTO in Iloilo in March. No plastic licences so issued with paper, no good for when I went to UK so no driving there. Got my plastic licence on return in July.

Simply did the online course, passed first time with 22/25.

After a delay, which I will explain about, finally got my renewed 10 year licence yesterday at Las Pinas LTO in the NCR.
They confirmed you have to travel there if a foreigner living outside Manila to do it. As no one has posted here about what happens now if you are one living far from Manila you will have to enquire locally if that is your situation.

What happened with me was that on the eve of planning to travel to Manila to do it back in August for some reason I thought I'd just check the day before that I'd pass the eye test.. Found an eye chart on the internet and found my right eye was Ok but.a shock..... I couldn't read more than the top letter with the left eye! Hadn't noticed anything wrong walking outside, driving.

Went to an opthalmologist who said I had a cataract. Had the 10 minute Op, not cheap by the way. But no immediate improvement, which is common.Then after lots of eye drops later and more check ups, the doc concluded I had another issue in the retina. An expensive photo showed it to be a scar. Not as serious as Macular Degeneration, which the doc said he initially suspected, as it doesn't progress. Can be treated but the operation takes an hour and has a high failure rate. And very expensive. So given my vision was generally Ok he recommended corrective glasses for driving. They didn't enable me to read the whole eye chart with my left eye, only 3 or 4 rows, but an improvement, and I thought one which would assist with renewing the licence.

Which turned out to be correct. The LTO doctor checked the improvement, even if not to 20/20 with the left eye, and seemed impressed I had got the glasses for driving. Said she wouldn't be referring my case upward. to presumably some senior LTO doc, for a decision.

I'm not sure they make my vision outside and driving better and one can drive around our local rural area with no licence with little risk of being asked to show a licence. But it's good to be able to go further afield and to have another valid ID.

So, especially if you're getting on in years, best to have frequent eye checks done, either at the opticians, or just do them at home with a PC as I did. My conditions developed over only 5 years as there was no problem seen at the last renewal.

This is the eye test I used. There are others. You need to adjust the letter size and stand the correct distance away.

https://www.safeeyesamerica.org/home-eye-test

A PS on my previous post.

On line exam for licence renewal

I did it and passed easily after a little time investment on You tube. But yesterday they didn't ask for the certificate. I asked why and didn't get a clear reply.
Was it just at Las Pinas? Maybe not because I am a senior as my younger seatmate waiting for his card didn't have a pass certificate. Didn't see any around in my time there.
Has pi been dropped everywhere?
All the search results tell you to do it but you never know here, they often change requirements and don't tell you.
Not a difficult thing to pass but it might be an idea just to check before renewing at your local LTO.