Stradcom: Fake registration traced to LTO

MANILA, Philippines -  The registration of a fictitious vehicle was done through “manipulation” by certain Land Transportation Office personnel, not because of a “corrupted” database managed by LTO contractor Stradcom Corp., the firm’s officials said yesterday.

During a press conference yesterday, Stradcom spokeswoman Margaux Salcedo said an audit showed the vehicle registration came from a computer assigned to employee Robert Alderito at the LTO’s Mabalacat, Pampanga district office.

The registration was done earlier this year by agents of a Department of Justice-Department of Interior and Local Government task force in order to validate reports that genuine car plates and LTO forms could be purchased for non-existent vehicles and sold to carjacking syndicates.

Stradcom officials said they were able to stop the registration through triggers programmed into the system to combat anomalous transactions.

LTO spokesperson Bobby Ricohermoso said the allegations were not true.