PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Friday relieved all Land Transportation Office personnel assigned in the truck weighing station in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya due to mounting complaints of extortion activities amounting to millions of pesos.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the President instructed Department of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to immediately relieve all LTO officials and personnel in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya after truck owners complained of extortion activities in the area.
The order emerged during the meeting between President Duterte and rice traders in Malacañang Thursday afternoon, were some rice dealers were forced to increase the price of rice due to the extortion activities of some LTO personnel.
“The unabated extortion activities of the LTO personnel in the truck weighing scale in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya has been going [on] for decades,” according to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol.
The President became furious upon hearing the complaint, and called Tugade over the phone to bring the LTO officials in Malacañang where he would “squeeze their faces.”
The identities of the LTO personnel were not immediately available.
Aside from the LTO personnel, Duterte also wanted “the relief of personnel of the Department of Public Works and Highways manning the truck weighing station who are reportedly working in cahoots with the LTO team.’’
The DPWH personnel were not identified either.