MMDA asks LTO: Revoke Maserati driver’s license

MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) formally requested the Land Transportation Office (LTO) yesterday to revoke the driver’s license of a motorist who roughed up a traffic enforcer. 

Joseph Russell Ingco was caught on video punching Jorbe Adriatico as he drove his Maserati Ghibli, dragging the enforcer for at least seven meters, along Quezon Avenue Thursday morning.

MMDA assistant general manager for operations Emerson Carlos and lawyer Victor Nuñez, MMDA legal counsel, personally handed the request letter to LTO Assistant Secretary Alfonso Tan Jr.

“Mr. Ingco’s action was a clear and blatant disregard of authority and grave abuse of a privilege of being granted a driver’s license. A person with such violent behavior should not be allowed to drive on our roads as he is a danger not only to traffic enforcers but to other motorists as well,” the MMDA letter signed by Carlos read.

LTO spokesperson Jason Salvador said the complaint against Ingco would undergo due process before the agency issues any decision. 

Psych test, anger management

Ingco, on the other hand, asked MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino yesterday to look into Adriatico’s character and take a closer look at the enforcer’s complaint.

Ingco’s lawyer, Edgardo Padernal, said Adriatico should take a psychiatric test and undergo an anger management seminar, citing a complaint aired by a law student during a television interview that she, too, was a victim of the traffic enforcer.

“We ask Chairman Tolentino to have a second look at the case before he judges Russel,” Padernal told The STAR yesterday. 

Adriatico suffered a broken nose as a result of the incident.

Based on Adriatico’s complaint, Ingco got irked as other MMDA enforcers took videos and photos of his vehicle as he allegedly tried to make an illegal turn at the corner of Quezon and Araneta Avenues in Quezon City.

Adriatico has filed criminal charges of grave threats, physical injury, assault upon an agent of persons in authority and robbery against Ingco before the Quezon City prosecutor’s office.

Over the weekend, Ingco said Adriatico, 39, was the one who threw the first punch. He said he punched Adriatico so the enforcer would let go of his arm, which Adriatico grabbed when he confronted the enforcer for taking a video.

Adriatico said Ingco yanked his shirt and would not let go.

Ingco claimed he did not commit any traffic violation. The businessman also said he would file counter charges against Adriatico.

In a related development, Ingco has a Glock 9mm pistol and a Bushmaster rifle with expired licenses, a source said yesterday.

The source said Firearms and Explosives Office records show the license for the pistol was secured in August 2009 and expired in June 2011 while the rifle’s license was registered in 2010 and expired in 2012.

Tolentino yesterday urged Ingco’s passenger to come out and shed light on the incident. He said the passenger was only a few inches away from Ingco at the time, and the passenger “either tried to stop Ingco or helped him.”

‘Totally unrelated’

Tolentino said the alleged incident involving a female law student and Adriatico cannot be connected to the incident involving Ingco.

“I think the camp of the Maserati driver is confusing the issue by using a totally unrelated incident. Besides, Adriatico is not the accused here, they are just trying to destroy his credibility and character,” he said.

According to the MMDA chief, Ingco’s camp revealed that a female complainant against Adriatico would come out. This was days before the law student – who misrepresented herself to be a lawyer – surfaced, he said.

Tolentino said the previous altercation between the law student and Adriatico started when the student’s illegally parked car was bumped by another vehicle a month ago in Banawe, Quezon City.

He said the law student allegedly hurled invectives against Adriatico during the incident’s investigation, forcing Adriatico to capture on video the verbal attack on him.

According to Tolentino, the parties involved in the accident later agreed to settle amicably as the law student’s car only sustained a scratch. He added that it was Adriatico who even convinced the parties to settle amicably.

Tolentino also defended Adriatico’s use of a video camera during his altercation with Ingco, saying that it is a standard procedure for traffic enforcers to utilize video cameras to document traffic-related incidents, particularly in areas not covered by closed-circuit television cameras. – With Mike Frialde, Cecille Suerte Felipe