DOJ panel clears LTO chief in car registration mess

(Updated 2:12 p.m.) The Department of Justice has cleared Land Transportation Office head Virginia Torres, a shooting buddy of President Benigno Aquino III, of allegations that she facilitated the registration of a stolen or smuggled vehicle three years ago. In an 11-page resolution issued last February 24, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong said Torres could not be held liable for the alleged falsification of registration documents of a Mitsubishi Pajero. Ong said that the falsification could not have happened during Torres’ stint as LTO Tarlac district head. Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code prohibits public officials from falsifying government documents. The prosecutor said Torres was unaware that the Pajero was stolen when it was registered twice before she headed LTO’s Tarlac City office in 2008. “Considering that the crime of falsification was committed either in Sept. 1997 or June 1999, when respondent Virginia Torres was neither the district head of the LTO Roxas District Office nor the LTO Tarlac District Office, it follows that she could not have participated in the commission of such offense," a portion of Ong’s resolution reads. The resolution was approved by Prosecutor General Claro Arellano and Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon. Four registrations Citing LTO records, Ong said the Pajero was bought by a certain Josefino P. Razon from a Japanese national in September 1997. The vehicle was then registered at the LTO office in Roxas town, Isabela province, and had the plate number RJP-111 and Motor Vehicle (MV) No. 0232-00000009279. As it turned out, the MV No. 0232-00000009279 was already assigned to Razon’s Honda motorcycle. Ong then concluded that the Pajero “may either be a carnapped/stolen vehicle or a smuggled vehicle." “Hence, the assignment of MV File No. 0232-00000009279 to it despite such number having been assigned to a Honda motorcycle registered under the name of Josefino P. Razon," Ong said in the resolution. In 1999, Razon sold the Pajero to a certain Cristina Macasaet. The transfer was registered at the LTO Tarlac City office, which was then headed by Luciano Llanillo. Nine years later, or in 2008, Macasaet sold the vehicle to spouses Arnel and Cheryl Lou Sicat, who subsequently sold it to a certain Dimsy Yap in 2009. The transfer of the vehicle in 2008 and 2009 happened under the watch of Torres. Yap was already the owner of the vehicle when the Philippine National Police’s Highway Patrol Group in Cordillera tracked down the Pajero and found out it was a stolen or smuggled vehicle. Ong’s resolution was stemmed from the complaint the PNP-HPG filed against Torres, Yap, and driver Samuel Fernandez. Razon as source In his review of the LTO records, Ong said that the falsification of the documents happened either in 1997, when Razon acquired the vehicle, or in 1999, when Razon sold the Pajero to Macasaet. “The fact that Razon is the source of the Pajero when it was transferred to Macasaet is strong indicia of the former’s participation in the falsification. Besides the plate number RJP-111 suggests the initials of ‘Razon, Josefino P,’" said Ong. He then ruled that Torres, and the Pajero’s new owner, Dimsy Yap, and driver Samuel Fernandez should not be held culpable for the supposed falsification of documents. “It is recommended that the complaint against respondents Torres, Yap, and Fernandez be dismissed for lack of merit," said Ong. He then recommended that the PNP-HPG in Cordillera region investigate the origin of the Pajero and the possible culpability of Razon and the LTO’s officials in Roxas, Isabela as well as that of former LTO Tarlac district head Luciano Llanillo. DILG probe The DOJ’s findings are similar with that of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), which is looking into the alleged protectors of carnapping groups in the government. Earlier this month, DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo said that an inter-agency task force has found that the Pajero registration Torres signed was just a renewal and that the car had already been registered three time before. He said Torres could not be faulted because she was unaware the vehicle was stolen. Robredo said they found out that the Pajero was imported into the country, with its import duties unpaid since it was registered but with the serial number of a motorcycle. The DILG secretary said the task force would be recommending the filing of charges not against Torres but against Llanillo, who headed the agency when the second registration was approved in 1999. - RSJ/KBK, GMA News