The Land Transportation Office on Friday reported the crackdown of a group of its employees responsible for "plates thievery" and arrested three of the suspects while their leader is still at large.

In an early morning press briefing at its central office in Quezon City, LTO chief, Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II, along with Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr., presented the three suspects, all "job order" employees, who were caught on Thursday sneaking a number of plates at the agency plate-making plant.

Mendoza identified the arrested suspects as embossers Jenard Arida and Arjay Anasco, and warehouse staff Valeriano Nerizon, all assigned to the plate-making plant at the LTO Central Office in Quezon City.

Mendoza said they have sought assistance from the office of Abalos who immediately provide the services of his Special Action Group from the Philippine National Police.

"This (operation and arrest) will not materialize without the help of the office of Secretary Abalos.Thisbis the first time and we will see kung gaano na katagal ito," Mendoza said.

“There is a syndicate behind these people involved in carnapping, smuggling, and other serious crimes. We will run after the mastermind and the buyers. It appears na matagal na itong embedded at the LTO. More employees will be investigated as part of our weeding out of scalawags,” he stressed.

P/Capt. Benjamin Tan, one of Abalos' team who helped cornered the suspects, said the three were nabbed trying to sneak out a number of plates from the LTO plant.

"From the report forwarded to us by LTO, the suspects were already identified. And based on CCTV footages we've reviewed, they (suspects) connived with each other in stealing the plates, tucked them to their back and put it on their motorcycle boxes to sneak them (plates) out, but we already pounced on them," Tan explained.

He added that the stolen plates can be used to criminal activities aside from selling them from P5 to P10,000 a pair.

"It will take time before you can recognized them, unless you would check from the LTO data base if that plate number was really issued to a particular vehicle, because the bore the same physical feature of original plates," Tan explained.

Abalos for his part said the people behind the scheme must also be identified, as he was very sure that the suspects have other conduits.

The three suspects he said would face qualified theft and robbery charges, which have been filed after the press briefing.

LTO Intelligence and Investigation Division head Renante Militante, on the other end, said they have been tracking the thievery for a year but could not find any hard evidence, until later in December last year they got an information that some of their employees are into it.

"First week of January, may nag-testify and based on CCTV footages we pointed and identified them (culprits). That's why we coordinated with the PNP and the office of Secretary Abalos. And we have an intel report that the suspects will sneak another batch of plates yesterday (Thursday, 25 January)," Militante said.

He added that from their inventory the suspects were able to sneaked out a total of 38 plates this month.

Technical carnapping

Based on the investigation, the arrested suspects are part of a grand illegal scheme involving newly-acquired motor vehicles through financing.

A thorough investigation revealed that the modus starts with a leader or a financier who will acquire a vehicle through financing and will illegally sell the vehicle using duplicated plates and fake OR/CR.

By doing so, the financier finds its way to provide a fraudulent plate and OR/CR from his/her contact inside LTO amounting to or less P20,000 each pair of plates. More so, his/her contact will then request the Plate Making Plant (PMP) team leader to illegally put these so-called duplicate plates.

When the duplicated plate is already produced, the team leader "Warehouse Supervisor", upon receiving his/her payment will then give the duplicated plates to the financier through courier to complete his/her transaction.

Mendoza said that the scheme could be classified as technical carnapping as motor vehicles do not necessarily need to be modified or tampered with anymore as it would only constitute the crime of carnapping which the syndicates are avoiding.

Today, those motor vehicles sourced from Rent-Tangay, Assume-Balance, Labas-Casa-Talon, etc. just needed falsified registration documents and other documentation such as agreements, etc.

“The most important part of technical carnapping is the role of the con artist that usually fronts in the transaction by disguising themselves as the registered car owner during the disposal phase,” Mendoza said.

“Hence, a backstop identification card and other proof that can support the belief that the con artist is the registered owner is essential in the documentation prior to the disposal of the motor vehicle. The con artist must have valid identification cards (falsified or bogus) that will match the name in the falsified registration documents,” he added.

Further, considering that the motor involved is still under a mortgage and the original documents were still under the bank’s possession, the syndicate has no option but to directly make a purported original copy.