The Land Transportation Office on Friday reported the arrest of three of its employees for alleged theft of license plates, with the purported mastermind of the scheme now being sought.

LTO chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II and Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. presented and identified the arrested suspects as embossers Jenard Arida and Arjay Anasco and warehouseman Valeriano Nerizon.

The three are job-order employees of the LTO working at the plate-making plant at the LTO Central Office in Quezon City, according to Mendoza, who sought Abalos’ assistance in entrapping the workers.

The three were allegedly engaged in pilfering plates from the plant using a motorcycle.

“There is a syndicate behind these people involved in carnapping, smuggling, and other serious crimes. We will run after the mastermind and the buyers,” Mendoza said.

“They appear to be embedded in the LTO. More employees will be investigated as part of our weeding out of scalawags,” he added.

P/Capt. Benjamin Tan said the three were nabbed trying to sneak out license plates from the LTO plant.

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

P5K-P10K

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

“It will take time before you recognize them, unless you check from the LTO database if that plate number was really issued to a particular vehicle. They bore the same physical features as the original plates,” Tan explained.

Abalos said qualified theft and robbery charges had been filed against the three.

LTO intelligence and Investigation Division head Renante Militante said they had been tracking the suspects’ operation for about a year before the arrest.

However, it was only in the first week of January that someone testified and confirmed the theft.

“That’s why we coordinated with the PNP and the office of Secretary Abalos. We had an intelligence report that the suspects will sneak another batch of plates yesterday (Thursday 25),” Militante said.

He added that the suspects were able to sneak out a total of 38 plates this month.

According to probers, the suspects are involved in an illegal scheme involving the acquisition of motor vehicles through financing. The modus operandi involves illegally selling the vehicle using duplicate plates and fake OR/CR along with a fake license plate.

Rent-Tangay

Mendoza said the scheme could be classified as technical carnapping, as motor vehicles do not necessarily need to be modified or tampered with anymore with the use of fake documents and plates.

The “carnapped” vehicles are sourced from schemes like the Rent-Tangay, Assume-Balance, and Labas-Casa-Talon.

“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 are essential in the documentation prior to the disposal of the motor vehicle,” Mendoza said.

“The con artist must have valid identification cards (falsified or bogus) that will match the name in the falsified registration documents,” he added.

Considering that most of the motor vehicles involved are still under mortgage and the original documents are still in the bank’s possession, the syndicates then make spurious documents and buy fake plates.