Do you own Philippine commemorative license plates? I bought and used a valid PGH 100 commemorative plate last year but have recently been forced to toss it aside. It’s sad since I can’t even use the dang thing as paperweight! 

Ever since the authorities decided to change the rule earlier this year on how these plates should be displayed – you’re now not allowed to superimpose commemorative plates on top of regular plates, but must have both plates visible at the front – you can just imagine how utterly ridiculus the outcome would be depending on the owner’s interpretation of the ruling. You can see some owners forcing the issue by placing the plates either side-by-side, or by setting the commemorative plate literally on the top of the regular one. I guess they wanted to make the most out of their investment, and you can’t blame them. The majority though decided to do away with the commemorative plates altogether, for the sake of aesthetics. 

The cops even had a heydey apprehending ”violators” (me included *sigh*) as a result of the new ruling. And a few unscrupulous ones even had the gall to threaten and/or extort bribe money from the poor and unsuspecting, innocent commemorative plate owner.

Given the above, I wonder how the new batch of commemorative plates will fare. Are the new ones worth buying at all? I don’t think so.