Family-run racket

A top Land Transportation Office (LTO) official based in Central Luzon has “appointed” his wife and a daughter to run a racket in the agency, collecting more than P5 million a month in “grease money.”

At the same time, this top LTO official has “deployed” an attack dog to discredit and dislodge employees who fail to deliver the weekly “tong” he and his family demand.

The LTO district chiefs interviewed by Scuttlebutt, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, revealed that this top LTO official collects the “weekly tong” from the 36 LTO districts, while his wife collects the “tong” from insurance companies, smoke emission companies, drug testing facilities and others, while his daughter is in charge of hiring and appointing people to “juicy” positions in exchange for huge amounts of money.

“Each district has a weekly quota of P800,000 for this official who also collects tens of thousands to one million pesos per person to be hired or given a juicy position,” said the sources.

Worse, this top LTO official has unleashed his attack dogs to threaten, besmirch and criticize on social media those who fail to “remit the weekly tong.”

who cannot remit grease money; there is now a climate of fear pervading in the LTO,” the district chiefs said.

They appealed to Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista and LTO chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza to look into the matter as this has severely affected the operations of the LTO in Central Luzon and has caused mental anguish to its employees.