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Saturday, September 18, 2004
Dagupan, Calasiao to probe fake TCT
By Fred P. Macaraeg
* Issuance of fake TCT a recurrence of 2002 incident
DAGUPAN -- The Public Order and Safety Office (Poso) in Dagupan City and the municipal police in Calasiao will conduct a joint investigation on spurious traffic citation tickets (TCTs) they confiscated from public utility jeep (PUJ) drivers.
Poso chief Robert Erfe Mejia and Calasiao chief of police Chief Insp. Policarpio Cayabyab Jr. agreed Thursday to compare notes for possible identification of the traffic enforcers who might have been selling fake TCTs to drivers of jeepneys plying the Dagupan-Calasiao route.
The agreement had been reached in a dialogue aired through radio station dzWN after the two parties blamed their respective traffic enforcers for the irregularity.
PUJ drivers managed to avoid apprehension and the confiscation of their card license by presenting a TCT indicating that they had been arrested earlier and that their license had been confiscated and has not been redeemed yet.
The fake TCTs were reportedly sold to drivers for P20 to P30 each by unscrupulous traffic enforcers.
Mejia said as early as 2002 when Supt. Candito Quijardo was still the police chief in Calasiao, there was good coordination between Calasiao and Dagupan City.
"We immediately asked Colonel Quijardo if the TCT came from them. What he said was that the TCT is not legitimate because the booklet containing that TCT is missing in our records," he said.
The arrested driver pinpointed to a certain traffic enforcer Garcia as the one from whom he bought the TCT for P20. So Quijardo recommended to the mayor that the suspect be penalized.
He said three days ago, it seemed that there is a recurrence of the event when the Poso apprehended a Calasiao-Dagupan jeepney driver.
The driver purportedly handed a Calasiao TCT to the traffic enforcer. But when he was perusing the TCT and was about to ask question, the driver sped away.
"He radioed it immediately so the driver had been intercepted. At that point in time, he handed his license," Mejia said, adding that as per TCT 4725, the supposed violator is Richard Galvez and the apprehending officer is Velasco, which is unsigned.
He said the signature of Galvez in the TCT and of Ricardo Perez in his card license, who had been arrested the second time, is very similar.
The arrested driver refused to name the traffic enforcer from whom he bought the TCT but he purportedly simply described the enforcer and where he had been assigned.
"I thought this was over but there are still many so I had caused another investigation. We have many unclaimed TCTs confiscated by the police enforcers and the Poso enforcers. We have 20 plus 17," Mejia said.
(September 18, 2004 issue)
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