Saturday, February 23, 2008
Bayan Muna files raps against ex-LTO 7 chief, 9 other officials
CRIMINAL and administrative charges were filed yesterday against 10 Land Transportation Office (LTO) officials, including a former Central Visayas director, for their alleged involvement in the syndicated illegal registration of smuggled vehicles.
Complainant Bayan Muna asked for their immediate preventive suspension “to preserve the integrity of vital records and to prevent them from intimidating or otherwise influencing” witnesses.
Named respondents in the complaint were former LTO 7 director Alex Leyson, ex-assistant director Edgar Cabase, the agency’s incumbent resident ombudsman and Chief Legal Officer, Vicente Gador Jr., and LTO Cebu City Registrar Alita Pulga.
Likewise included in the complaint are Honorio Quiambao, the head of the LTO office in Diliman, Quezon City; Bernardo Borromeo of the LTO Talisay City Extension Office, Aurea Angcay of the Lapu-Lapu City Extension Office, Macario Getaruelas of the Tagbilaran City Extension in Bohol; Joel Maloloy-on, the incumbent LTO registrar in Tagbilaran; and Mandaue City LTO Registrar Fernado Avila.
These officials, “by their acts or omission, had directly or indirectly participated, colluded in, consented to and/or condoned the illegal registration of smuggled or imported vehicles, resulting in substantial loss of government revenues,” read the complaint, signed by Bayan Muna secretary general Arman Perez.
“This loss represents revenue that could have been used for social services like education or health,” he added in an interview.
Highlighted in the complaint is the allegedly illegal registration of 43 imported vehicles by other offices, even if their plates were all issued by the LTO office in Diliman.
Of the vehicles, 26 were registered at the LTO in Cebu City, 15 in Toledo City and two in Tagbilaran City, according to a computer printout that, Perez said, Bayan Muna obtained from the LTO central office.
Modus
In an explanation attached to the complaint, the Bayan Muna complaint said the vehicles were all smuggled and registered with the help of “unscrupulous registrars who are willing to dispense with the documentary requirements for a hefty asking price” that ranges from P50,000 to P70,000 per car.
“To avoid detection, these smuggled vehicles, although originally registered in Cebu, were issued license plates from LTO Diliman,” it added.
Perez, in the interview, singled out the LTO registrars of Cebu City, Toledo City and Tagbilaran, together with the LTO registrar in Diliman, for the 43 vehicles.
He hopes that the ombudsman examines the records of each car to find out who else were involved.
Perez said the vehicles, together with an untold number of others, were registered despite the government’s supposed efforts to curb corruption.
This, he added, would not have been possible without the assistance of higher-ranking LTO officials at the regional office.
In the complaint, Bayan Muna accused Leyson, Cabase and Gador of sabotaging the campaign of two subordinates, Jose Ruperto Remollo III and Bebot Gingoyon, who were supposedly running after illegally registered vehicles.
Relief
“Apparently, the campaign had run counter to the personal interests of the registrars who enjoyed the backing and protection of Atty. Leyson, Edgar Cabase and resident ombudsman Atty. Vicente Gador. Coming to their rescue, Atty. Leyson hastily ordered the relief (of) the law enforcement chief, citing false excuses and invalid grounds to support the relief order,” the complaint read.
In the interview, Perez admitted their only basis for this was media reports but added that the allegation will be supported by the findings of a separate investigation by the Department of Transportation and Communication.
According to the complaint, the LTO officials concerned made a show of investigating the illegal registration of smuggled vehicles when the media began running stories on it.
Leyson, it pointed out, issued an order dated May 2007 calling for an investigation.
However, the complaint alleged, nothing ever came of it until the DOTC confronted the problem upon the prodding of the Cebu Automotive Dealers’ Association.
“Their deliberate failure to act on the irregularity shows there was collusion between them and the registrars involved in the illegal registration of imported cars, making (them) liable for dishonestly and graft and corrupt practices. Otherwise, their deliberate inaction, consent or condonation makes them liable for gross neglect and serious misconduct,” the complaint said. KNR |
