The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Sunday, Dec. 3, ordered its regional offices to bolster efforts in coordinating with Facebook Philippines to take down accounts offering assistance for online registration.

LTO chief Vigor Mendoza asked regional directors and district heads to monitor Facebook profiles offering “palakad” or online assistance for LTO transactions.

“We will also tap all our employees to immediately report to their district heads any accounts that offers LTO online assistance. Kami ay isang pamilya at obligasyon ng bawat isa sa amin na protektahan ang pangalan ng aming ahensya,” Mendoza said.

“We are also planning to give incentives to LTO employees whose information could lead to the arrest of these online scammers and take down their social media accounts,” he added.

According to the LTO chief, the agency’s digital shift prompted a decrease in fixers nationwide but noted that some were still involved in the scheme.

“This digital shift has improved our anti-corruption measures in the agency because it results in less human intervention, particularly those involving fixers,” Mendoza said.

“May mangilan-ngilan pa din na patuloy sa pambubudol ng ating mga kababayan sa pamamagitan ng social media at ito ang tinututukan namin ngayon. Hindi ako papayag na sisirain ng mga ito ang mga repormang naisakatuparan na natin sa LTO,” he added.

Mendoza also urged the public to tag “online scammers” to prevent the spread of this scheme.

“Malaki ang naitutulong ng ating mga netizens sa mabilis nating aksyon sa mga abusado sa kalsada, kami po sa LTO ay umaasa na magiging masigasig din ang ating mga netizens laban sa mga online scammers na ito dahil kapag hindi ito nasugpo, baka ang inyong mga kaibigan at kapamilya ang mabiktima ng mga kawatang ito,” he said.