LTO regional head to file libel suit vs accuser

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — The Cagayan Valley director of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) is poised to file a P120-million libel suit against an LTO employee in Roxas, Isabela for tagging him as the alleged mastermind of the shooting of a prominent lawyer here last July 18.

"Definitely, we will sue him for dragging my name in the case," said Moises Almuete, LTO regional director, referring to LTO employee Ernesto Fernandez who has implicated him in the shooting of lawyer Virgil Castro.

Almuete said his lawyers are set to file the libel suit against Fernandez this week.

The accusations, he said, "are meant to destroy the image of the LTO, my name and that of my family."

In a two-page sworn affidavit, Fernandez alleged that Almuete was behind the attack on Castro, the legal counsel of another LTO employee who has lodged a complaint against the LTO regional director with the Ombudsman.

Castro sustained four gunshot wounds in the attack perpetrated by two gunmen.

In the same affidavit dated June 22, Fernandez also accused Almuete of allegedly plotting the killing of Bayombong Regional Trial Court Judge Jose Rosales and prosecutor Celerino Jandoc.

Fernandez alleged that Rosales and Jandoc were targeted for assassination as early as 1999 because the two were handling cases against Almuete. He said he then headed the LTO’s San Isidro (Isabela) district office.

He said he came to know about the alleged slay plot when one Sadiri Domingo, whom he claimed to be one of Castro’s attackers, came to his office and applied for motorcycle license plates.

In his affidavit, Fernandez, who claimed to be a former close friend of Almuete, said Domingo "readily told me that it was Jandoc and Rosales" whom the LTO regional director allegedly wanted to eliminate and that the two motorcycles were to be used by the hired assassins.

Former LTO chief Edgardo Abenina suspended Fernandez last year for "dishonesty, grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty."

Fernandez has also implicated Almuete in last year’s slayings of Ernesto Busa, a member of the LTO’s Flying Squad here, and Joven Martin, a deputized LTO agent.

Busa, he said, was killed after Almuete allegedly suspected him of tipping off authorities about the regional director’s alleged illegal activities.

Almuete have vehemently denied all of Fernandez’s allegations. "He is insane. He is practically blaming me of doing every crime committed here," he said.