QUESTIONS over the alleged registration of smuggled vehicles and the loss of some P5 million to a missing cashier have prompted an order to transfer Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 Director Alex Leyson.
Leyson confirmed that Assistant Secretary Reynaldo Berroya and Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) Undersecretary Annelie Lontoc informed him he will be transferred to LTO 8 in Tacloban City, while the congressional inquiry on vehicle smuggling is ongoing.
Leyson said he will swap positions with LTO 8 Director Raul Aguiluz, based on the order signed by DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza.
He will comply with the order to avoid being accused of insubordination, but also said he already acted on the initial reports when he relieved the LTO registrar in Toledo City last year. He has yet to receive the order.
In September 2007, Undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr., chief of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), told Sun.Star Cebu that they intercepted about 200 smuggled vehicles in Metro Manila and that all of these registered with the LTO in Toledo City.
Leyson said that after reading Villar’s statement, he immediately relieved Gavino Paden, the LTO registrar in Toledo City and transferred him to the V-Hire Division. That LTO unit registers only the public utility vehicles such as passenger jeepneys, taxis and buses.
However, DOTC officials decided to replace Leyson reportedly after the PASG seized smuggled vehicles in Makati City last month and found out that these were registered with the LTO in Cebu.
A DOTC legal team was also sent to Cebu to look into the LTO 7 records. The team examined the records in one week.
Their recommendations were not made public.
Aside from the alleged illegal registration of smuggled vehicles, the team also found out that the LTO 7 leadership failed to account for some P5 million in 2006 and 2007.
Cashier Marissa Veriña, who is facing several criminal and administrative charges with the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, suddenly disappeared after Leyson relieved her of her duties last Sept. 13, 2007.
In its initial inquiry, the House committee on good government chaired by Rep. Pedro Romualdo (Camiguin) found out that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu issued certificates of payment (CP) for the importation of engines and chassis.
However, it turned out that these were registered by LTO as whole units—meaning the government collected less taxes and fees than what it was owed.
Despite the fact that the CPs are for engines and chassis only, the LTO registered them without an assembler’s tax and accreditation from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Leyson clarified that under the LTO rules, no imported vehicles shall be registered without the necessary CP from customs.
If the vehicle is rebuilt from an engine, chassis and body that were separately imported, the assembler must submit accreditation from the DTI and proof that he has paid the assembler’s tax with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Leyson, a lawyer, said that if some LTO registrars violated the law by registering the vehicles with CPs only for engines and chassis, then they too could be penalized. (EOB)
