LTO probes own staff over stolen car plate materials

LAND Transportation Office (LTO) chief Roberto Cabrera ordered the relief and investigation of several employees under the agency’s Plate Making Plant (PMP) following the reported disappearance of some P4-million worth of license plate materials from the facility during the Holy Week break.

Cabrera made the directive amid suspicion that the aluminum plates had been gradually pilfered in small quantities long before the “theft” was reported to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) on Monday.

In January, the then newly appointed LTO chief asked the regional directors to conduct an inventory of vehicle plates and driver’s license cards in line with efforts to address the supply shortage brought about by disallowed contracts.

“It’s possible that the plates were gradually taken and when the inventory was ordered, that’s when the theft was reported,” LTO spokesperson Jason Salvador told the Inquirer on Wednesday.

PMP chief Rogelio Buduan earlier told the QCPD that 10,000 plates and 1,250 uncut aluminum sheets were stolen during the nonworking days of Lent. At P450 charged for each duplicate plate, the missing plates amount to at least P4.5 million. The plant, located in the LTO main compound on East Avenue, Quezon City, only makes duplicates for lost plates since a contract for new standardized plates was bid out in 2013.

In a radio interview, Cabrera doubted that what happened was a burglary carried out in one go, saying the aluminum sheets were too heavy to be carried off through the possible entry point that was noted in the police investigation.

PO2 Rex Salvador, an investigator from the QCPD-Kamuning station, earlier cited the plant’s exhaust vent as the possible entry point, noting that its steel cover was pried open enough for a “skinny” person to pass through.

The LTO has also asked the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the matter, Cabrera said. “If the perpetrators were outsiders, they should be apprehended immediately. If this was an inside job, appropriate charges must be filed.”

Cabrera also formed an LTO special task force, composed of directors and internal auditors, to do a parallel investigation.

Plant foreman Raul Reyes told the police  that private security guards were posted on the PMP perimeter during the Holy Week break, while the plant itself was padlocked and that only he and Buduan had the keys.

According to Lope Mahilum, chief of the security detachment, Buduan took photographs of the pile of sheets on Holy Wednesday. When Buduan and his staff returned four days later, the pile remained “with no apparent difference” from the photographed image, Mahilum said in a report.

Reyes was the first to enter the plant that day and, “without an accounting, he knew that the position (of the sheets) had changed,” Mahilum added. It was at this point that Buduan measured the pile with a stick and deduced that some bundled sets had been removed.

Sought for comment, Buduan maintained there was a burglary and that the responsibility rested on the guards who had now come up with a report “contradictory” to the police findings. He also clarified that only Reyes had the keys to the plant.

The March 29 relief order covered 19 LTO employees:  Buduan, Reyes, Rolando Perez, Estrellita Guillen, Floriño Villon, Socrates Gatchalian, Angelito Pagador, Restituto Lazo, Charlitom Dancel, Rizalino Pucay, Nelson Dalang, Romulo Adivino, Benigno Soriano, Benjamin Balanay, Rolando Papa, Lucio Querubin, Salvador Orande, Roberto Aristorinas and Joefre Verdadero.