BUENAVISTA, AGUSAN DEL NORTE, Philippines — Internal anti-corruption systems have caught a major field unit operating along the highways of northern Mindanao. Nine personnel belonging to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) Caraga Regional Law Enforcement Section were arrested during a high-stakes, early-morning entrapment operation for alleged systemic bribery and extortion (“kotong”) activities.
The tactical sting took place around 6:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 18, 2026, at Purok 5, Barangay Alubijid, located inside the coastal municipality of Buenavista.
The crackdown was executed following an extensive period of intelligence accumulation and direct field validation. To ensure operational security and bypass potential local leakage networks, the sting was coordinated at a high tier:
[ THE ANTI-EXTORTION STING ARCHITECTURE ]
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[ CENTRALIZED OVERWATCH ] [ PHYSICAL ENFORCEMENT ]
• **LTO Task Force Central Office:** Spearheaded the initial dossier • **Police Regional Office 13 (PRO13):** Deployed its specialized
and directly authorized the sting from the national headquarters. • Intelligence Division alongside regional mobile force units.
• **The Command:** Ordered directly by LTO Assistant Secretary • **The Arrest Panel:** Operatives from the Buenavista Municipal
Markus V. Lacanilao to systematically clean out regional rings. • Police Station executed the physical perimeter lockdown.
According to PRO13 Information Chief Lt. Col. Jennifer Ometer, field teams caught the nine enforcers completely red-handed as they systematically flagged down and demanded “grease money” from incoming commercial transport trucks and logistics drivers traversing the provincial highway.
During the immediate body searches and vehicle inspections at the scene, tactical units recovered a massive array of physical evidence tying the suspects directly to the illegal scheme:
[ THE FIELD EVIDENCE LOG ] │ ▼[ Financial Assets ] ──► Operatives recovered the official pre-recorded **marked money** used by the undercover drivers, alongside significant amounts of unrecorded assorted cash. │ ▼[ Administrative Tooling ]──► Teams seized the suspects' corporate communication devices and active **traffic apprehension forms**, which were allegedly being used to threaten drivers with inflated penalties. │ ▼[ Criminal Escalate ] ──► One specific arrested enforcer faces heavier exposure after field teams discovered an un-licensed weapon; he was hit with an additional violation under **Republic Act No. 10591** (Comprehensive Firearms Act).
The suspects are currently being held underneath tight police custody inside the Buenavista lockup facility. Legal teams from the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor are actively consolidating formal complaints covering direct bribery, graft and corruption (RA 3019), and robbery extortion.
The regional breakthrough follows a frustrating history of highway extortion complaints across Caraga. Just last November, an LTO law enforcement team leader in Trento, Agusan del Sur, faced a highly publicized show-cause order over matching truck extortion claims.
Reacting to the latest multi-person arrest, LTO Chief Lacanilao reaffirmed that the department is moving to instantly execute parallel administrative cases to permanently strip the nine enforcers of their public offices, emphasizing that there remains absolutely zero room for personnel who choose to betray public trust for roadside cash.