8 LTO men nabbed for bribery

DIPOLOG CITY, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines  – Eight members of the Land Transportation Office, including their leader, based in this capital city were apprehended last Monday for bribery during an entrapment conducted by local policemen, it was learned yesterday.

City police chief Superintendent Reynaldo Maclang, in his report to Zamboanga del Norte police director Senior Superintendent Ulpiano Lopez, identified the suspects as LTO team leader Fahad Gaguil, 50; LTO assistant team leader Marcelo Tumaclas, 51; Romeo Villacampo, 39; Saanodin Gunting, 32; Rolando Daymiel, 34; Alberto Orillan, 40; Rommel Adalahao, 34; and Candawe Macapanton, 32.

Maclang, amid widespread complaints from motorists and concerned residents, dispatched a special police team in civilian clothes, led by Inspector Mendel Casao, to conduct an entrapment operation against the LTO men with the use of video camera while the latter were manning a checkpoint at a rotunda in the urban barangay of Estaka.

According to Maclang, the raiding policemen confiscated from the LTO agents bribe money totaling P2,503 and P700 marked money used by the lawmen in the entrapment for a total of P3,203.

The cash amount taken from Gaguil totaled P940; from Tunaclas, P1,800; from Villacampo, P240; and from Gunting, P223, Maclang said.

The police chief said charges of violation of RA 3019 otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, bribery and usurpation of authority have been readied against the suspects who all are now detained in the city jail.