Author: Rochelle Sy Chua

How to Renew Driver’s License from LTO in the Philippines

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On June 5, 2013

How to Renew Driver's License from LTO in the Philippines

I took a leave during my birthday week.  However, I ended up sleeping most of the time that I worked on renewing my driver’s license two days after my birthday (ultimately means that it’s expired for 2 days).  Just thinking about the whole renewal process is stressful already.  I can remember the stress, the heat, the long queue from 2 years ago.  I dread to experience the same yet again.

Luckily, I got some tips from a friend that it would be best to just renew inside a mall.  There are some watch outs: never to go on a payday, not to go during mondays, not in the mornings & definitely not in crowded LTO renewal centers (i.e., Ayala MRT station, Farmer’s Plaza Cubao, Metropoint Mall Pasay).

I decided to write this post because I’m sure that after 3 years, I won’t be able to remember any of this experience.  Thus, it would be best to document so that I can refer to this post when I need to renew my driver’s license again in 2016.

One huge lesson that I learned today: ALWAYS renew your license before it expires.
Best time to renew is one month before expiration date.

Plan your Trip.

Find the nearest LTO branch near you.

LTO Office Galleria

Here’s a complete list:

  •  DLRC NE Pacific Mall, Maharlika Hi-way, Cabanatuan City
  •  DLRC SM Marilao, Bulacan
  •  OSS SM Mall City, San Fernando, Pampanga
  •  DLRC SM Clark, SM City Clark Field, Angeles City, Pampanga
  •  DLRC Sta. Rosa, 3rd Flr., Robinson’s Market, Sta. Rosa, Laguna
  •  DLRC SM Naga City, Brgy. Triangulo, Naga Cit
  •  DLRC Bacolod, Robinsons Place, Bacolod City
  •  DLRC Iloilo, Robinson’s Place, Iloilo City
  •  DLRC SM Cebu, SM North Reclamation Area, Cebu City
  •  DLRC Robinson’s Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental
  •  DLRC ICM Tagbilaran City, Bohol
  •  DLRC Cagayan de Oro City, Limketkai Mall, Lapasan, Cagayan, De Oro City
  •  DLRC SM City, 2nd Flr., Quimpo Blvd., Davao City
  •  DLRC NCCC Mall of Tagum, Highway 55, Tagum City
  •  DLRC SM Manila 5th Flr. SM Manila
  •  DLRC Araneta, 3F Araneta Square Mall, Caloocan City
  •  DLRC Ayala MRT Station, Makati City
  •  DLRC Guadalupe Upper Level, Guadalupe Commercial Complex, Makati City
  •  DLRC Robinson’s Galeria, Level 1 East Lane Ortigas, Mandaluyong City
  •  DLRC Tutuban, 2nd Flr Central Mall Bldg, Tutuban Center
  •  DLRC Metro East, Basement Robinson’s Metro East, Marikina
  •  DLRC Ever Gotesco, 2/F Gotesco Mall, Commonwealth Ave., Q.C.
  •  DLRC Robinson’s Place Fairview, 3F Robinson’s, Novaliches, Q.C.
  •  DLRC Metro Point, 3rd Flr., Metro Point Mall, Pasay City
  •  DLRC SM Super Center, Grd., Flr., SM Hypermart, Pasig City
  •  DLRC SM Megamall, G/F SM Megamall B, Mandaluyong City
  •  DLRC SM North Edsa, G/F SM North Edsa Annex, SM City
  •  DLRC SM Cubao, 3rd Flr., Farmer’s Mall, Cubao, Quezon City
  •  DLRC Alabang, Ayala Alabang Town Center, Muntilupa City

Bring the following items to prevent hassle on the driver’s license renewal process:

  1. Ballpen – There are 1 or 2 pens available at either the medical center or LTO branch.  However, if there are a lot of people filling up the forms, then you have to wait for them to finish.  If you brought a pen, you can save some waiting time 🙂
  2. Bottle of water – this is very important because a drug test would require you to fill up a small bottle with your urine.  You have to fill up the whole bottle so it would be best to drink lots of water.
  3. Hand Sanitizer – I can’t stress this enough.  Considering that you will be working on submitting your urine, it’s best that you have this with you.  Hygiene should be a top priority.
  4. Driver’s License & Official Receipt – Without this, your driver’s license renewal won’t be processed.  If you lost your license, then it’s another process altogether.   Better check that you brought all required items before leaving the house.
  5. Money – Be ready to bring about Php 1,000 to Php 1,200 to be sure.  You’ll need to spend money on both medical exam and driver’s renewal fee.
  6. Book/Gadget – You will spend at least 30 minutes waiting for your medical exam result and driver’s license so it’s best that you make good use of your time.  Read a book, check emails, play games, whatever you like 🙂
  7. Traffic Violation Receipts – If you’ve been apprehended before, then it would be best to bring the proof of payment.  You do not want to encounter any problem when you’re in the LTO Express Center.

The Process

Medical Exam Center

  • Fill out Drug Test Forms (2 pages)

Medical Drug Test Forms

  • Proceed to the Cashier and pay for the Medical Exam & Drug Test Fee.  You will have to surrender your expired license.
  • Submit Urine.  Make sure that you have enough capacity to fill up 60ml bottle of urine.

LTO Urine Drug Test

  • Proceed to the Medical Doctor to have weight and height taken.  The eye exam will be taken at that room as well.  Be ready to pay another Php 50 for the computer fee.  The personnel told me that this is specific for LTO renewal applicants only.
  • Get your picture taken and finger scanned for your records to be stored in the system.

LTO Fingerprint

  • Wait for the Results.  Waiting time is usually 20-40 minutes.
  • After obtaining your medical exam and drug test results, you can now proceed to the LTO centre for the Driver’s License Renewal.

LTO Center

  • Fill up Driver’s License Application form 

LTO Form

  • Submit filled up LTO form together with Medical Certificate and Negative Drug Test result from the accredited testing centre at Window 2.
  • Pay corresponding fees to the Cashier at Window 1.
  • Proceed to Photo taking/signature area at Window 4 to have your picture and signature taken when your name is called.  Be sure to smile at the camera 🙂
  • Wait for Driver’s License release.  It usually takes around 15-30minutes.
  • Claim the Driver’s License & Official Receipt at Window 3.

The Cost

Medical Exam

Medical test: Php 100.00
Drug test: Php 300.00
Computer Fee: Php 50.00

LTO License Fee

License Fee: Php 350.00
Computer Fee: Php 67.63
Change of Address Fee (if applicable): Php 100.00
Penalty (if expired): Php 75 (1 day to 1 year)/Php 150 (1 year & 1 day to 2 years)/Php 225 (more than 2 years)

So that’s it!  If you go at the right time and at the right LTO express center, you can finish everything in less than an hour.  Always remember to renew your license as it will definitely hurt you if MMDA or local police caught you driving without a license.  That’s a big no-no.  Let’s be law-abiding drivers.  We’ll enjoy driving more!

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) Drivers License is valid for three years.

Roch Signature

Lucky Me! Special Instant Pancit Palabok

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 31, 2013

Lucky Me! Special Pancit Palabok

I see palabok as a dish that needs to be prepared for a long amount of time.  It’s a delightful dish that people usually serve at parties.  I tend to get a dose of palabok during office celebrations or birthday parties.  But that’s about it for me.

Who would have thought that Pancit Palabok can be prepared in less than 5 minutes?  I mean, is that even possible?

Apparently, Lucky Me! Special, a company known to have perfected instant noodles have a product named Lucky Me! Special Instant Pancit Palabok!

This week, I was in for a big surprise as Lucky Me! Special sent me a couple of Lucky Me! Special Instant Pancit Palabok for review.  Wow!  They didn’t just send it as it is but Lucky Me! Special delivered it in true palabok style.  The products were placed in a traditional bilao!

Lucky Me! Special Pancit Palabok Bilao

With that kind of product presentation, who wouldn’t be excited?  I was totally psyched to try it out!

A colleague told me that Lucky Me! Special Instant Pancit Palabok launched a long time ago (last November 2011). I guess I was too concentrated on their pancit canton product that I missed Lucky Me’s display of Pancit Palabok Instant Noodle Packs.

Today, I had it for lunch.  I woke up so late already that I didn’t have time to prepare any dish so I went to get a pack of Lucky Me! Special Instant Pancit Palabok.

Lucky Me! Special Pancit Palabok Pack

Cooking Lucky Me! Special Pancit Palabok is surprisingly easy!  I can describe the preparation in three simple steps.  In just 5 minutes, I was already enjoying the wonderful taste of Lucky Me! Special Instant Pancit Palabok!

  1. Place noodles in a bowl.  Add boiling water and cover for 4 minutes.

Lucky Me Pancit Palabok add

  1. Carefully drain water. 

Lucky Me Pancit Canton Drain

  1. Mix noodles with sauce.  Add garnish and mix well.

Lucky Me Pancit Canton Mix

Pancit Palabok is usually served unmixed.  Look at Lucky Me! Special’s version below:

Lucky Me! Special Pancit Palabok Presentation

It looked like the real thing!  I loved it!!  I have this crazy idea of just serving Lucky Me! Special Pancit Palabok and people might mistake it as the authentic one: Rice noodles with thick golden shrimp sauce topped with chives and real chicharon 🙂

In true palabok style, I mixed the ingredients with the noodles.  When I tried it out, I was pleasantly surprised!  The instant pancit palabok by Lucky Me! Special actually tasted unexpectedly good!

Lucky Me! Special Pancit Palabok Enjoy

Lucky Me! Special Instant Pancit Palabok has a similar aroma and taste of the authentic palabok dish.  I’m quite satisfied with the product.

How about you?  Have you tried it?

Roch Signature

Smart offers Flexibundles to Postpaid Subscribers for Big Savings

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 28, 2013

Smart Flexibundles

Being a Smart postpaid subscriber, I’m glad that Smart is offering ways for us to save more with our current plan.  While we have a lot of postpaid plans to choose from, we can’t seem to get a perfect plan.  There are times that we would want to text and call a lot of people when certain occasions come up like a change in home address, change in telephone numbers, announcement of parties, and New Year greetings!  It doesn’t happen every month so we would want to be flexible with our mobile plan.  We used to just suck it up and accept huge cellphone bills during those times but guess what?  Smart’s new offering solves that problem!!!

Introducing…. Smart Flexibundles!

Flexibundles are affordable services which you can add-on to your current Smart mobile postpaid plan.  It provides a good way to save money while enjoying more services.  You can mix and match the flexibundles depending on how you use your mobile phone.  You can even change bundles month per month!  It’s flexibility in the truest sense!

There are a lot of bundles to choose from.  There are bundles for calls, text messaging, cellular data, international and Blackberry.

All Smart postpaid subscribers can avail of Flexibundles and subscribing is easy!

Benefits of Flexibundles

  • Easy on the budget – enjoy huge savings from a selection of bundles, from unlimited calls to all-net SMS to affordable mobile browsing.
  • Easy to personalise – From a wide range of bundle options, you can switch your bucket choice month after month without hidden charges!
  • Easy to get – whatever postpaid plan you are currently subscribed to, you can easily avail of any bundle you like.  Simply text to to register to get the bundle you need.

List of Flexibundles

Smart Flexibundle Plans

Flexibundle Calculator

Smart created a Flexibundle Postpaid Guide Calculator so we can play around with the different flexibundles combined with our postpaid plan.  It’s very easy to understand and we can even know how much we will save by availing the promo.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Choose Plan
  2. Choose Flexibundle
  3. Choose Phone
  4. View Package Summary

I probably will get the All Net Text Upgrade when I need to text a lot of folks (around December-January timing).  See how much I will save!

Smart Flexibundles

How to subscribe to Smart Flexibundles

Smart postpaid users can easily subscribe to Flexibundles via SMS.

Text <keyword> to 7577 for All-In users, 9990 for Freedom Plan users, and 2207 for users of other plans.  But for internet data services, the access code to All UNLI services except Unli LTE: 211, for All Always ON and Unli LTE: 2200.

You can find keywords and access codes here!

Smart Flexibundles TVC

Smart’s TV commercial features endorser Anne Curtis shopping for her Flexibundles.  While we don’t really physically go to a store and pick flexibundles, I love how the ad showed what the new promo is all about.

LTE bundles will be added in the future so expect more options!

I guess Smart knows that we, subscribers, want to have more control with services that we pay for.  They continue to find ways to satisfy subscribers’ needs which proves why more and more people are using Smart.

You can find complete information about Smart Flexibundles here: http://bit.ly/Flexibundles.

Roch Signature

Fast & Furious 6 Movie Review

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 27, 2013

Fast & Furious 6 Movie Review

It’s a good thing that I was on leave last week because I was able to watch Fast & Furious 6 on its first day.  I caught it when most of the folks were at work.  When evening came, the only words that came out of my mouth were, “Do watch Fast & Furious 6!”, “You should watch Fast & Furious 6”, “Fast & Furious 6 is the best among all Fast & Furious movies!”, “Do not miss Fast & Furious 6 or else you’ll regret it” and “Fast & Furious 6 is soooo good, you should make time to catch it”.

I was really like a broken record convincing every single friend to catch the movie.  Suffice to say, I enjoyed the movie tremendously.  In fact, my jaw dropped almost the entire time I was watching it.  It was that good.

Fast & Furious 6 follows after a successful $100 million robbery from Fast Five.  The group are now enjoying a comfortable life as multi-millionares and have retired from their old life.  However, U.S. government agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson) approaches them to seek help on tracking down a group of criminals led by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and Dominic’s assumed dead girlfriend Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez).  Since Dominic’s gang are family, the Fast Five team regrouped.

There are a lot of things I loved about Fast & Furious 6:

  • My favourite stars in the Fast & the Furious franchise are all in the film – Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Ludacris, Tyrese, Gal Gadot, Sung Kang, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster & Elsa Pataky.  The new stars (Luke Evans & Gina Carano) were awesome too!
  • Fast & Furious 6 was action-packed.  Trust me, from the first scene to the last scene of the movie!  It was just so full of stunts, fast cars and unbelievable action scenes!  Other movies will have only one of those stunts as highlight in their movie.  However, Fast & Furious 6 are jampacked with all those awesome sequences!
  • It’s a combination of car racing (Fast & Furious real theme), WWE (yes, wresting!) and non-stop action!  Fast & Furious definitely grown from being a car racing movie to a full-blown action film with characters not only good at driving but also learned to fight and use guns.
  • The movie connects the story of all other Fast & Furious films.  We finally are able to connect and understand the storyline.  I had to watch Tokyo Drift again to understand Sung Kang’s character more.
  • The humor wasn’t forced at all.  When the characters delivered those lines, it was genuinely funny!  Something that normal people would utter as well.
  • The action isn’t limited to the male leads but also equally to the female characters.  It shouldn’t be a surprise considering Fast & Furious had former MMA champion Gina Carano onboard.  They all kicked ass!
  • I love how Fast & Furious 6 built each character’s story.  Everyone had their moments and we empathised with each of them especially Sung Kang… I miss him :'(
  • The spoiler article that I read last February 2013 is actually REAL!  It’s now confirmed who the villain is for Fast & the Furious 7 and I loved it!  Actually, I wanted to watch Fast & Furious 7 right the minute that Fast & Furious 6 ended.  If movie theaters sell those tickets right now, I would buy it in a heartbeat!

My rating for Fast & Furious 6:  5 out of 5 stars.

Roch signature

Accessories for your Apple-branded Gadgets

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On May 24, 2013

Accessories for your Apple-branded Gadgets

As I clean up the things at my place, I realised that I have several accessories and Apple-branded gadgets.  I’m definitely an Apple fan and I definitely proved it because I tend to buy a lot of their products.  Apart from that, I stay awake every time Apple announces a new product!

With that in mind, I decided to create a working list so that I have an inventory of everything that I have.  I tend to forget things as well so this is a good reminder.  You can consider this as a guide if you’re on a lookout for accessories that will go well with your MacBook, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

SCREEN PROTECTORS & CASES

EARPHONES, HEADPHONES & SPEAKERS

OTHER ACCESSORIES

 

Updated: February 15, 2014

Roch Signature

Loading...
X