Guv orders arrest of 11 transportation agents

Saturday, January 14, 2012

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Cotabato Governor Lala Talinio-Mendoza filed complaints of usurpation of authority and official functions against 11 deputized agents of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) assigned in Kabacan town, North Cotabato.

This came after Mendoza caught the LTO agents conducting checks on vehicles along the highway in nearby Matalam town without orders from higher authorities.

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Mendoza filed the complaints Friday at the Cotabato Provincial Prosecutor's Office here.

Charged and immediately placed under inquest proceedings were Yusoph Mamaluba, Ferdan Reformado, Eddie Waguia, Teng Mastura, Roy Pedtamanan, William Esmael, Abdullah Paunti, Alamada Israel, Salapon Mulod, Jordan Jainal, and Badrudin Ali.

The LTO agents were placed under the custody of the Matalam municipal police office.

Mendoza also included in the charge sheet the officer-in-charge of the LTO in Kabacan whom she identified as Andie Batokapal.

Batokapal, however, was not jailed because he was not present when the highway inspection took place.

Aside from violation of the Revised Penal Code, charges of illegal drug use were filed against two of the arrested LTO agents after they tested positive in a drug test.

Mendoza said the agents failed to present to her their deputation orders from the regional office of the LTO in Cotabato City.

She added that the agents violated what the Cotabato Provincial Government and the LTO district heads had agreed last November that the highway inspections be done in areas near police outposts or Army detachments so as to discourage the practice of mulcting (kotong) from motorists by these agents.

Mendoza caught these agents doing the traffic check along Barangay Kilada in Matalam, kilometers away from a police outpost.

In November last year, the Cotabato Provincial Board had investigated, in aid of legislation, the alleged "kotong" of some deputized agents, mostly assigned at LTO Kabacan. Mendoza said they were also already warned last year.

"Yet, they still continue to violate what was agreed upon," she said.

Batokapal was surprised to know he was included in the charge sheet.

"These agents had by-passed me. They just operated on their own. It was not me that gave them order to conduct highway check last Thursday," Batokapal said.

He instead identified Ali as the head of the group and identified LTO Soccsksargen regional director Arlan Mangelen as the one that gave them deputation orders.