3 LTO personnel caught stealing license plates in own plant; 1 remains at large

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 26) — Authorities have arrested three Land Transportation Office personnel for allegedly stealing license plates from the agency's plant in Quezon City, while another employee is still being tracked, LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II said Friday.

In a media briefing, Mendoza said they will face charges for qualified theft and robbery and administrative charges.

Those who bought the smuggled license plates will also face charges, he added.

Renante Militante, LTO intelligence and investigation division head, said the four personnel worked in the agency under job orders, some of them working in the LTO since 2018.

The remaining LTO employee who remains at large was tagged as the leader of the group.

From Jan. 6 to 10, authorities found that around 38 license plates were smuggled from the agency, but Militante said the LTO will audit its license plates since 2018.

The unregistered license plates were sold for ₱5,000 to ₱10,000, Militante said.

“It appears na matagal na itong embedded at the LTO [It appears that it has been embedded at the LTO for a long time],” Mendoza said. “More employees will be investigated as part of our weeding out of scalawags.”

In a statement, LTO said the smuggling of license plates can be considered technical carnapping as arrested LTO personnel were alleged to have provided duplicated plates to financiers who illegally sell vehicles.

Vehicles with duplicated license plates may be used to engage in crimes so that they won’t be tracked by authorities, LTO said.