Pagadian mayor’s son caught using improvised car plate

MANILA, Philippines—A mayor’s son was apprehended Saturday afternoon for using an improvised car plate (KCY-761) and police later learned that the car registration belonged to someone else.

Lance Co, 17, the son of Pagadian City Mayor Samuel Co, was aboard a black Kia Sorento when Highway Patrol Group (HPG) operatives flagged down the sports utility vehicle for bearing no car plate on the front side and using a rear-side improvised plate.

Co, the SK Federation chair of Pagadian City, said that he was on his way home when the police asked his driver, Nonito Siaboc, to pull over along Edsa in Pasay City.

HPG Area Team Leader SPO1 Bryan Tinao said that the Co’s registration papers do not match the ownership details in the Land Transportation Office database.

Initial verification from LTO showed that the plate number KCY-761 is registered to a certain Cherubic Via, which should be attached to a red Kia Sedona minivan.

“We are here to verify who owns the car, not to harass anyone. There is an obvious discrepancy on what their papers show and what we have in our database. We want to follow procedure in verifying this,” said Tinao.

Tinao also said that Co’s registration documents did not have a dry seal and an expiry date of one month, which would be customary to vehicles granted permission to use improvised car plates.

As of press time, HPG was set to verify other details on the ownership of the car. Tinao said that while the improvised plate might not be on the car theft list, HPG has been Co’s original car plate.

“We will not put our name’s honor at risk just for this car,” said Co. “There must be error in LTO. I know that this car belongs to our family.”