GMA adviser rapped over impounded car

CEBU CITY – presidential liaison officer Elberto Emphasis has allegedly tried to intervene for the release of two vehicles the police had apprehended and later impounded.

The vehicles, two Multicabs owned by a car dealer Porta Coeli Industrial Co. Inc., were apprehended by Cebu City traffic police for having no plate number. They were later impounded for having conduction sticker numbers that did not correspond to any in a list of 20 vehicles of the company granted permits to travel without plate numbers.

A conduction sticker allows a vehicle, normally a new one, to travel without license plates.

Cebu City traffic police chief Julius Cesar Gornez told The Freeman that Emphasis called him twice yesterday afternoon to request for the release of the two Multicabs. The request was ignored.

A check with Porta Coeli, a division of Norkis Trading Co. Inc., showed that Emphasis is a managing director and the chief operating officer of the company.

Emphasis himself said he has been on leave since getting appointed as a presidential aide, contrary to what was learned in the check with Porta Coeli.

The two Multicabs were apprehended by Senior Inspector Lucio Bacordo and two traffic enforcers Thursday morning at corner Governor Cuenco and A.S. Fortuna Streets.

When apprehended for having no license plates, the drivers of the two Multicabs, Rogelio Galagao and Generoso Riboca, said they were taking the vehicles for a road test and showed police the conduction stickers on the windshields.

They then handed the apprehending officers a letter from Rupert Castrodes, the managing director of Norkis for its Filcab technical services department, requesting the Land Transportation Office for conduction stickers for 20 vehicles.

The letter bore the approval of LTO regional director Porferio Mendoza dated April 10, 2002.

But on closer scrutiny by the apprehending officers, they found that the conduction sticker numbers on the two apprehended Multicabs, 14JDN and 13JDN, did not appear in the list of sticker numbers for the 20 vehicles approved by Mendoza. – Freeman News Service