By Manny Piñol
An angry President Rody Duterte last night ordered Transportation Secretary Art Tugade to relieve the team of Land Transportation Office (LTO) personnel assigned in the truck weighing station in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya following complaints by truck owners of extortion activities amounting to millions of pesos every month.
“Dalhin mo sila sa akin sa Malacañang kay kumoton nako ilang mga nawong,” he said in a mix of Tagalog and Visaya dialects.
(Bring them to me in Malacañang and I will squeeze their faces.)
The President also directed Secretary Bong Go, special assistant to the President, to effect the relief of personnel of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) manning the truck weighing station who are reportedly working in cahoots with the LTO team.
During the forum with rice industry stakeholders in Malacañang last night, rice traders from the Cagayan Valley Region reported to President Duterte of the unabated extortion activities of the LTO and DPWH personnel in the truck weighing scale in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya which they said has been going for decades.
Trucks loaded with agricultural commodities are required to go through the weighing scale to determine whether the trucks are overloaded.
The traders said this is being made as an excuse to extort between P500 to P1,000 per truck whose operators have no choice but to pay up to avoid delay and inconvenience.
As much as 1,000 trucks pass through the weighing scale everyday and the extorted money amounts to between P500,000 to P1-M daily or up to P30-M every month.
“Ang sipag-sipag po nila Mr. President. Maski holidays at maski noong Holy Week, naka-duty sila at wala kaming ligtas,” the rice traders complained.
They said that this has been going on for over 10 years now and previous administrations seemed helpless in stopping the extortion operations.
Highway extortion activities result in higher prices of food commodities in the market because traders pass on the added cost to the consumers.
Upon hearing the complaint, Pres. Duterte instructed Sec. Bong Go to call up Sec. Tugade who is undergoing medical checkup in a hospital.
“Art, pasensya ka na istorbohin muna kita pero kailangan mo i-relieve yong mga LTO mo sa Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya. Pagkatapos dalhin mo sila sa akin sa Malacañang kay kumoton nako ilang mga nawong,” the President told Tugade.
(Art, I’m sorry but I have to bother you but you have to relieve your LTO personnel in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya. After that, you bring them to me in Malacañang because I would like to squeeze their faces.)
As Mayor of Davao City, President Duterte was known to have physically dealt with corrupt policemen and highway patrol personnel and even conducted night patrols himself to check on their activities.
The President did not announce last night if the “Face Squeezing” of the corrupt DPWH and LTO personnel could be witnessed by the media and the public.
(Photos of the Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya map and cargo truck downloaded from public websites while the photo of President Duterte was taken during last night’s forum with rice traders.)
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