MANILA, Philippines - Policemen arrested yesterday two Land Transportation Office (LTO) employees and 12 of their alleged cohorts for their alleged involvement in the illegal manufacture of license plates and other vehicle registration documents during a raid on stalls outside the agency’s headquarters in Quezon City and several houses in the area.
Orly Villaflor and Roberto Aristorenas, both assigned at the LTO’s license plates section, and a woman identified as Vilma Castillo, are facing charges for falsification of public documents and economic sabotage.
Combined operatives from the National Capital Region Police Office, Quezon City Police District and other units also confiscated blank license plates, official receipts, and certificates of registration as they raided eight houses around the LTO compound in Barangay Pinyahan.
“This operation is a product of a six-month case buildup. We have infiltrated this syndicate with our assets. And we’ve also conducted test buys,” Superintendent Napoleon Cauyan, project director of the operation, told reporters in an interview.
According to Cauyan, the government loses P150 million in revenue from the registration of vehicles due to the group’s operation. He said it was the first time a raid of this kind was done in the area.
NCRPO director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales said they conducted the operation in relation to their anti-carjacking efforts, noting the tampering of vehicles’ documents is a common practice of carjacking syndicates.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. We already have a lead on the identity of their financier. The financier could be a prominent person because you’ll never be a financier of this kind of business (if you don’t have the connections),” Rosales told reporters.
Some 200 policemen were involved in the raid yesterday. They were armed with eight search warrants.
QCPD director Chief Superintendent Elmo San Diego said they even had to bring personnel from their Special Weapons and Tactics team following reports that some of the suspects were armed. No untoward incident happened during the operation.
Carrying a map of Barangay Pinyahan, policemen went to one house to another in search for stalls involved in processing documents for vehicle registration that could be part of the syndicate.
LTO chief Arturo Lomibao said he welcomed the raid and that he would be conducting an internal investigation if there are other LTO personnel involved in the anomaly. – With Perseus Echeminada