DAVAO CITY (MindaNews /20 April) – Personnel from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-Davao arrested four alleged fixers at the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-Davao on Monday, among them employees of a nearby driving school and a medical laboratory.
NBI-Davao assistant regional director Gerald L. Intes told a press conference here that they launched an entrapment operation around 11a.m. after two weeks of surveillance, based on information provided by LTO-Davao director Ernesto Raphael V. Robillo regarding unlawful fixing activities.
The two fixers approached NBI agents, posing as clients, and subsequently offered their services.
According to Intes, the two agents were separately brought to the Easy Auto Driving Academy and the Blessed Pedro Calungsod Medical Laboratory, both located just outside LTO-Davao.
“Before the arrest, there were fixers who approached the clients, and they would bring them to different establishments related to LTO registration. They got the marked money (from the agents),” he said.
He said the arrests were carried out simultaneously inside the medical laboratory and the driving school after the fixers accepted money amounting to P3,500 from the agents.
Intes alleged that the fixers, in collusion with workers from the two establishments, were offering to expedite the processing of driver’s licenses through their connections inside LTO-Davao.
Intes said they will also investigate the employees of the LTO-Davao.
Grace (not her real name), an encoder and cashier at the medical laboratory and one of the four suspects arrested during the entrapment operation, denied any involvement in fixing transactions for the registration and issuance of driver’s licenses.
She said she had only been tasked with receiving money from clients for medical examinations and encoding their information.
She denied knowledge of any fixing transactions at the LTO-Davao.
Intes said charges will be filed against the suspects for violating Republic Act 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Services Delivery, which amended the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.
The law prohibits fixing and/or collusion with fixers in consideration of economic and/or gain or advantage. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
