The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has launched a full-scale probe into the alleged use of fake driver’s licenses by a group of former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers, now infamously tagged as the “Bulacan Group of Contractors” or BGC Boys, to gain entry into casinos.
LTO Chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II said Friday that the agency’s Intelligence and Investigation Division (IID) is tracing the source of the counterfeit IDs used by dismissed DPWH-Bulacan First District engineers Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, and three others.
“They need to tell us who supplied these fake licenses—or at least where they came from—so we can put an end to this practice,” Mendoza stressed.
The LTO has also started coordinating with several casinos to determine whether the use of fraudulent driver’s licenses is becoming a common tactic among players. “We would like to work with casino operators to secure more evidence and details that can strengthen our investigation,” Mendoza added.
The five engineers are currently under a 90-day preventive suspension, but the LTO is considering harsher penalties, including outright revocation of their licenses and a lifetime ban from securing new ones.
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson is expected to provide fresh information on the case next week. The LTO aims to wrap up its investigation and issue a decision by September 17.
The controversy escalated after a Senate hearing the other week, where Alcantara admitted to using an alias and a fake driver’s license to enter a casino.
The LTO has charged the group with “willful misrepresentation of material information in application for a driver’s license” under Republic Act 10930 and “imitation and false representation” under Section 31 of RA 4136.