More than 300 Lemereños recently benefitted from free medical and dental services as SM Foundation brings back its “GAMOT PARA SA KAPWA” Medical and Dental Mission in Batangas. 

SM Foundation conducted the medical mission at SM Center Lemery last February 22, 2023. The beneficiaries were provided with free medical and dental services such as medical and dental consultation, tooth extraction, various tests such as x-ray, random blood sugar tests, cholesterol tests and uric acid test. Free medicines were also given as prescribed by the volunteer doctors.

GAMOT PARA SA KAPWA Medical and Dental Mission is a project initiated by SM Foundation Incorporated in collaboration with SM Center Lemery made possible through the support of its project partners from Lemery Municipal Health Office, Batangas Medical Society and Batangas Medical Center.

One of the hot topic that is being discussed in our Facebook group (Hyundai Reina owners) is about the registration of cars after the three years’ free registration from dealer. There has been some confusion since there are two scenarios and 2 things to be considered. There is a difference with the last renewal date and the schedule of ending number of the licence plate issued. We all know that yearly renewal of registration is scheduled according to the last digit of our car’s plate number. But in our case, the expiry of the car registration is earlier than the schedule of the released plate number. Our car was first registered last February 2020 and we got our plate number with ending digit “0” that falls with the schedule of October. So the confusion started with the inquiry among members and gave us different answers since some said that we should follow the plate number and some did say that we should follow first the OR CR date.

In our case, the answer is we need to register additional months after February 2023 (March – October) so we can align our registration to its original schedule on October 2023. If you happen to have your license plate schedule ahead of your OR CR date, you need to follow the last digit of license plate month schedule instead of your OR CR so you won’t have an additional registration afterwards. Don’t worry as your registration fee will also be computed accordingly and will be adjusted just like ours.

I wasn’t able to visit the nearest LTO branch here so what I did was to submit an email to LTO Client Care (clientcare@lto.gov.ph) from LTO’s website. After a few hours, I got a reply and they answer my inquiry in detail but also advised me to still ask our nearest LTO for the other info (Emission Test) if it is also required for additional months of registration.

I also asked the nearest LTO Accredited MVIC (8 Gears MVIC Rosario Branch) here at our location since they offer a one stop shop renewal of registration if they also additional or extension of registration. I was also happy and satisfied with how they handle the inquiry so I am thinking of going there for my actual renewal of registration on October to align our registration correctly.

Apart from this since I cannot call the LTO office, I asked for my cousin who is currently working at LTO Lipa Branch to confirm the details that I gather from asking LTO Client Care and LTO Accredited MVIC. And yes, it was confirmed that the answer to both channels are indeed correct.

Requirements for Renewal of Registration with Additional/Extension months

1. Latest copy of your car’s OR/CR
   
   
2. CTPL (Compulsory Third Party Liability) Insurance. It protects the owner from financial liability to anyone injured or killed by the insured vehicle. Most LTO offices have insurance agent on-site but you can opt to get elsewhere (Cebuana, M Lhuillier are some options and cheaper). I got mine from an agent beside the the office of 707 Driving Academy – Concepcion branch where I enrolled before for practical driving course
   
   
3. Duly accomplished and approved Motor Vehicle Inspection Report (MVIR). This is also available from the PETC where you obtained your car engine and chassis stencil procedure. The stencil will be attached on the MVIR form and the authorized LTO Inspection aide will check and record the functional parts of your vehicle. It will also indicate if you pass or fail the inspection of your vehicle.
   
   
4. Copy of your valid ID or License

Since I got my stencil done outside the LTO premises, I got another MVIR upon inspection of our car after giving them the requirements listed above.

Steps on Car Registration Renewal with Additional/Extension months

1. Complete first the mentioned requirements above for hassle free transaction inside the LTO Batangas District Office. Since I got mine beforehand and it was just located in front of LTO Batangas 
   
   
2. District Office, I was able to process mine easily and fast.
   
   
3. Once your requirements are complete, head to the nearest LTO District Office (mine was LTO Batangas District Office) to process your registration. Present all your requirements to an authorized LTO Inspection aide. He will examine your vehicle, checking of headlights, signal lights, wiper, break lights and EWD. Just listen to the Inspector as he might tell you other things to check aside from the things I mentioned. All items checked will then be recorded in your MVIR form. After inspection, he will give back the documents and queue number for payment.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Go to the District Office building and present your documents to the LTO evaluator who will review all of your documents before submitting them to the office for processing and for payment. 
   
   
5. Wait for the cashier to call your name. When it is your turn, proceed to the Cashier to pay the Registration Renewal Fee and/or any other fees that may be applicable. In our case, we need to pay the additional or extension of registration fee for months of March – October since our registration expires on February and our schedule should be on October. He will also issue your Official Receipt (OR).  
   
   
6. See your next schedule or validity of your registration in the OR printed. Since my vehicle should be scheduled on October, I need to go back and renew our registration again so that our vehicle registration will be aligned with the correct registration schedule.

How long did it take for the whole procedure to finish?

The stencil procedure and acquiring of CTPL insurance is less than 20 minutes and since the LTO Batangas District Office is just in front of it, it took me just another 28 minutes to finished the entire process from inspection (3:20PM – 3:28PM) to payment (3:33PM to 3:48PM) because there are no other vehicles lined up and the queue for payment is just a few clients. Today is Monday and I was expecting long queues since I also go there in the afternoon instead of morning as what others are usually doing that they ended up falling in long queues.

Please note that this transaction will not be available yet through your LTMS Portal if you are a registered user since this is not the actual registration renewal of your vehicle. This is for Additional Registration only and you need to go back again on your actual registration to finally have your vehicle listed in the LTO Portal.

Payments Incurred with the Additional Registration Renewal

Please note that payments vary with the following factors: (1) The LTO evaluator will be the one who will assess the renewal fee based on your OR CR Copy; (2) CTPL Insurance; (3) Stencil Fee.

Additional Registration Fee: ₱1210

Stencil Fee: ₱100

CTPL Insurance: ₱600

Other fees like late registration, transfer of branch, computation of Additional Registration Fee will be computed depends on your OR CR Copy and District Office where you will apply. It is advisable to inquire ahead of your schedule so you can get ready with requirements and payment fee covered.

I was relieved now that I finished registering our vehicle before our due date on February. I am thankful that my former Driving Instructor Sir Arvin helped me and guide me with this whole procedure and advised me to accomplished it today directly at the LTO Batangas District Office. This helped me understand more how to register a vehicle without asking for others to do it in my behalf since I also wanted to do things on my own. Luckily, I got a free schedule today and no long queues at the LTO Batangas District Office. Hoping that when I renew our registration once again on October, it will also be a hassle free transaction just like this.

You can also watch my vlog regarding this topic for a Tagalog/Filipino version. CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Help Tags: How to register your car in LTO; Paano irehistro ang inyong sasakyan sa LTO; Car Registration Renewal 2023; Additional Car Registration Renewal; LTO Batangas District Office; LTO Philippines

As 2023 approaches, I decided to finally get my retainers on since my orthodontist advised me a month before that I can have it done before the year ends. I first got my braces back in May 2019 and got it removed by December 2022. It could have been shortened if pandemic didn't occur. I also was skipping some months even after the pandemic because of my schedule. I've shared my braces journey in my vlog recently. 

Wearing my Hawley retainers is a bit off at first because my bite is not used to having such thing in my mouth. I thought I have to wear them 24/7 just like the braces but I didn't have to. I need to remove them before eating which I found much complicated than ever. My dentist told me that I need to wear my retainers in a span of how long I also wear my braces. This is to ensure that my teeth will not move back again into a crooked one. I also need to visit the dental clinic twice or thrice in a year for cleaning. 

Pros of wearing retainers

• Easy cleaning
• I can remove it if I need to
• I can chew my food properly now unlike before that I am always thinking my bracket might break
• It can improved the wearing of braces for a long time since it will keep your teeth from shifting back

When we enrolled with our homeschooling provider, they have option for other subscription and learning areas that we can add with our curriculum. Although I was expecting that our program supports more than the others coming from the word “Digi” I was a bit disappointed that it doesn’t have much freebie unlike other programs. But, the school provides us a subscription for Koobits this year. We are given a discounted subscription for Koobits Math for a year. I grab this opportunity even if I know that I will not entirely rely on this but this is helpful enough for our Math subject since it does have video presentations and quizzes for each lesson. We use for our 2^nd quarter lessons because of the addition and subtraction lessons that we need to take.

A Koobits Math subscription includes a Premium and Standard subscription. It has annual billing of 6000 for the Standard plan which is similar to half the tuition fee already but cheaper for tutorial lesson exclusively. However, I still find it expensive since there are already free Youtube videos now. Our school was given a requirement for a minimum number of students needed in order to have a discounted subscription. Imagine, we saved 5000 from the annual billing and we have an option to pay quarterly. Koobits Math has DepEd Curriculum and Singapore Curriculum so you can have advance lessons and even open from Level 1 – Level 6 of lessons plan. If your kid is always ready for a challenge and can work independently, Koobits is very much appropriate for you.

Here’s a look of our recent Koobits profile:

You can choose from Daily Challenge (random questions everyday), Mission (lessons with quizzes in the end), Multiplayer (you can have Koobits game with your classmates) and Assignment (a teacher or a parent can assign this). We mostly use Mission since I can just pick a lesson for the day and then take the quiz to see if she understand our lesson. You earned Koko Credits reward every after the mission which you can use the Story mode to unlock some options in there. We are at Level 16 for now for the Math since we rarely use this website. A parent can see each progress in the Report tab.

Learning Math through Koobits is fun and challenging. They offer Youtube videos that only subscribers can have access. They also provide explanation for the quizzes for the kids to find out if their answer is correct of wrong. 

It’s been 4 months since I started to use the Huawei Band 6 that my husband gifted me for my birthday. I am not into fitness tracking nor a fitness buff but I find this watch useful and reliable on data that I wanted to keep track.

The Huawei Band 6 helps you keep track of your health. Some notable features that I like about it are: exercise monitoring including your number of steps and even the number of times you are moving, sleep tracking your bed time and how many hours you sleep during the night even your nap time. It even monitors your REM and if you are only sleeping lightly. 

I also love that it can monitor your breathing and stress levels in a day. You know how stressful it is nowadays and you just can’t imagine how your health is affected with your daily routine. It also helps me with keeping up my message notifications and when someone is calling even if my phone is not nearby. One more thing I love is the “find my phone” feature wherein I can easily ring my phone without the need to call. There is also a shutter button feature if you are a selfie queen/king and you can’t reach your phone or not using a selfie stick. You can also track your monthly period, your mood, control your music player and have a mini flashlight.

However, there are also cons using the Huawei band 6. I notice that the battery usage fluctuates when you are using it too much for exercise. Even the syncing of data is not as fast as it can be to match on the Health app installed in my phone. Also, some data can only be accessible through its app.

I also love the fact that it is scratch resistant as the screen protector is too expensive.  

The Huawei Band 6 is lightweight to wear. It also said that it is water proof but I just remove it when I am taking a shower just to be safe. Every month Huawei has challenges that rewards you medal or some Huawei gifts when you achieve it. So far I have attained to reach some challenges and I am glad looking at my progress.