Gov’t task force gets names of carnappers’ suspected cohorts at LTO

MANILA, Philippines — A government task force on carnapping has identified officials and employees of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) who were allegedly in cahoots with carnappers.

“We already have their names. In fact, some of them are already facing administrative cases. We are checking the status of the cases against them,” De Lima said. But she refused to divulge them, saying it was still evaluating the evidence to determine if they can be prosecuted.

The Departments of Justice and of the Interior and Local Government had formed a joint task force to check if carnapping syndicates have cohorts in the government.

De Lima said carnapping would not have grown as a criminal activity without the help of public officials.

“It’s hard to market carnapped vehicles if syndicates are not able to get new registration papers and are not in cahoots with people inside the LTO,” De Lima said.

De Lima said the technical working group of the task force was in the process of collating all information and data it had gathered to determine the culpability of the law enforcers.

The government created the task force following the abduction and killing of car dealers Venson Evangelista and Emerson Lozano. The charred remains of Evangelista and Lozano and his driver Ernani Sencil were found separately in Central Luzon last January.

The killings were allegedly perpetrated by brothers Roger and Raymond Dominguez, alleged leaders of a carnapping syndicate. (report from Tetch Torres, Inquirer.net)