LTO evaluator guilty of graft

CEBU, Philippines - Regional Trial Court Branch 9 Judge Alexander Acosta sentenced a public official, formerly the computer evaluator of the Land Transportation Office Carcar City, Cebu, to six to seven years in prison for graft.

Generoso Campos Jr. was found guilty of violating Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019 otherwise known as the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Based on the complaint the accused issued last June 22, 1998 a certificate of registration with official receipt and plate number for a Yamaha V80 motorcycle to a certain Christopher Suan despite the absence of the required legal documents for registration.

SPO3 Abdela Bungkalot and Venancio Labiano Jr. testified that they went to LTO Carcar City to find out if there were fixers in the said office.

In order to identify and possibly arrest fixers victimizing people who come to apply for car registration and driver’s license, they utilized Suan as a decoy.

Generoso Campos said he was designated as a registration clerk and computer evaluator of registration transaction of motor vehicles. He said as receiving clerk, he screens the documents and returns them to the applicant if he finds them incomplete.

In the offense charged, Campos denied having signed the official receipt.

Acosta, in his 11-page decision, found sufficient evidence to hold him guilty of the crime charged.

“…it is likewise abundantly clear that accused in the exercise of his official function, with manifest partiality and evident bad faith, had given unwarranted benefits and advantage to a certain Suan,” he ruled.

“Well-established from the records that Generoso Campos Jr. had permitted and caused the registration of the motorcycle of one Christopher Suan notwithstanding the absence of some of the requirements for registration of motor vehicle as provided by law,” the decision added.