Former LTO official jailed

A former Land Transportation Office official was sentenced to a six-year imprisonment for estafa and falsifying public documents.

Aside from a jail term, Regional Trial Court Branch 13 judge Eric Menchavez also slapped a P2,000 fine on Matildo Consuegra, a former LTO officer in the city.

Consuegra was charged after he duped Joseph Donan into paying him P15,000 for a taxi franchise in February 1997. Consuegra issued Donan the "franchise" and a Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board "receipt" and told him he could start operating his taxicab.

But when Donan came back a year later to renew his franchise, he was told the franchise issued to him was fake thus he could not renew it. It was discovered that the franchise number issued to Donan by Consuegra was already officially issued to a certain Bernard Arriola.

It was also found out that the "official receipt" issued by Consuegra to Donan did not appear in the records of the LTO. With this, Consuegra was administratively charged before the Office of the Ombudsman, which later dismissed him from service.

In his defense, Consuegra told the court that being a patrol officer he could not have issued the franchise to Donan. But he admitted having borrowed P5,000 from the complainant.

The court, however, did not give weight to Consuegra's testimonies, saying "the prosecution was able to prove that it was the accused who handed over to the private complainant the two falsified documents."

It also ordered Consuegra to pay P15,000 as actual damages to Donan.