MANILA – The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee is set to recommend the filing of charges against officials of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) due to the delayed release of motorcycle plate numbers.
Sen. Richard Gordon said his committee has proposed graft and corruption charges against LTO officials as motorcycle owners have not received their license plates for nearly eight years.
“Ilang beses ka nang nagbayad, wala ka pa din plaka,” the senator said in an interview with ABS-CBN”s TeleRadyo on Thursday morning. “Talagang graft and corruption ang pupuntahan nito.”
“Ang nangyayari naghahabol sila ng dalawa hanggang tatlong taon na walang plaka samantalang meron naman silang mga pabrika ng plaka sa LTO,” he added. “Ang dami nating katiwalian na pinababayaan lang natin at kinakaya ‘yung maliliit na walang laban.”
Officials from the Bureau of Internal Revenue will be invited in the next hearings to verify if motorcycle dealers were evading tax duties in the sale and processing of documents for motorcycles.
In 2013, LTO has opened a public bidding for the supplier of motorcycle plates but the Commission on Audit called the process “illegal” since there was no monetary allocation for the production of license plates at that time.
According to Gordon, the Supreme Court allowed the production of the license plates to resume provided those involved in the questionable bidding would be held accountable./PN
