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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Thursday, April 6, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Two agencies were urged to investigate the “inaction” on an internal report recommending the filing of charges against Land Transportation Office (LTO) Region 6 personnel allegedly engaged in tampering with temporary operator’s permits (TOPs).
That Regional Director Roland Ramos continues to sit on the findings of the Regional Anti-Fixers Team (RAFT) gives way to more irregularities, according to Task Force Crusaders national deputy commander John Chiong.
Chiong wrote the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas and the LTO national office — specifically Deputy Ombudsman Paul Elmer Clemente and Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante — asking them to look into the issue.
In a series of investigations, the RAFT led by chairman Atty. Gaudioso Geduspan II, LTO Legal Section chief, found that several LTO personnel from Western Visayas and Negros Occidental were “liable for administrative and criminal charges,” Chiong said.
The RAFT launched the investigation together with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in light of allegations against several LTO Regional Law Enforcement Service personnel.
Starting with the Roxas District Office on Aug. 10, 2016, the investigating team examined TOPs and apprehended driver’s licenses.
“The inks used by the members of the Regional Law Enforcement Team in preparing the TOPs are erasable inks that easily evaporate when heated,” read part of the LTO report.
“Separate videos were taken of the demonstration, specifically TOP No. 174865843, apparently issued to one ‘Danosos, Roderick Paul Paderna,’” the document read. “CIDG personnel heated the handwritten word ‘Dumarao’ using a disposable lighter [and the] word easily disappeared without a trace.”
Other LTO personnel also used the same procedure — using erasable ink on their issued TOPs — the RAFT said.
Other LTO offices covered by the investigation were Barotac Viejo District, Bacolod Operations Unit, Antique District, Cadiz District, Sigma Extension, Kalibo District, Calinog District, Pontevedra Extension (Negros Occidental), San Carlos District, Guimbal Extension, and Himamaylan District.
The last investigation, in the Himamaylan District Office, was conducted on Sept. 26. 2016.
Geduspan submitted to Ramos the RAFT’s findings, contained in a “Briefing Memorandum” dated Jan. 16, 2017 with the subject, “Fact-finding investigation on the alleged fixing of apprehensions by the members of the Regional Law Enforcement Service (RLES) LTO Regional Office 6: Final report and recommendation.”
LTO Region 6 received the document on Jan. 27, 2017.
All LTO apprehending officers found to be behind the irregularity are “administratively liable for grave misconduct, abuse of authority and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service,” the RAFT said.
The investigating team also recommended the filing of criminal charges against them for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Anti-Red Tape Act.
“It is [now] March 27, 2017, yet Ramos [has] not acted on the recommendations, obviously giving more chances for more irregularities and anomalies,” Chiong wrote Clemente and Galvante.
Panay News was still trying to reach Ramos for comment. He was not answering text queries as of press time.
Task Force Crusaders is a volunteer group formed to serve as a “counterintelligence unit” of the Office of the President and the Office of the Solicitor General, and help the Duterte administration in its campaign against illegal drugs, graft and corruption, and crimes./PN
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