PAOCTF nabs LTO officer for extortion

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force announced the arrest last Friday of a supervising officer of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Cainta for allegedly extorting P400 from two insurance agents.

Chief Superintendent Francisco Zubia, task force deputy chief for administration and chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) identified the LTO officer as Nilo Oabel.

He was collared following complaints that he was involved in extortion activities victimizing car insurance agents.

Zubia said the entrapment operation against Oabel was conducted after Angeli Mendoza, a representative of Capital Insurance and Emma Lojo, secretary of one Wilma Ramos of Industrial Insurance Company Inc., reported to the task force’s Complaints and Action Center that the LTO officer had been demanding P50 for every vehicle registered in exchange for the release of vehicle stickers and another P100 for every vehicle whose previous registration is from another LTO branch in exchange for the swift release of the confirmation receipts.

Zubia said in cases where insurance clients were brought in by the complainants, the suspect allegedly demanded a bigger amount of "grease money" equivalent to 60 percent of the insurance premium.

The LTO chief allegedly got 20 percent while a certain Boy Talavera and Boy Miranda, both LTO inspectors from the same agency get 40 percent.

On Thursday, task force agents accompanied the two complainants and arrested Oabel after he received from the two P400 in marked money at the LTO office in Cainta.

Prior to the operation, Zubia said Ramos, representing seven insurance companies namely Security Pacific, Commonwealth, Times Surety, Capital Insurance and Wellington filed the complaint against Oabel.

A separate complaint was filed by Mendoza on Oct. 4.

The suspect is now detained at the PAOCTF detention cell at Camp Crame.