The Land Transportation Office in Bacolod issued the driver’s license of a notorious fugitive from India tagged as a leader of an organized crime syndicate stating that he is a Filipino and a resident of Bacolod City, an LTO official confirmed Friday, July 12.
LTO – Bacolod Licensing Center chief Joseph Danoy confirmed that the driver’s license was issued to Kant Gupta, the fake name of Joginder Geong, in 2022 when their licensing office was still located at Cottage Road in Bacolod City.
He was not the head of the licensing division then and did not know why the driver’s license stated that Gupta was a Filipino, Danoy said.
He said their records show that Geong, using the name Gupta, obtained a student permit in January 2022, which requires that he goes to driving school and enrolls in the Land Transport Management System online portal.
When his client ID was encoded for a student permit in the LTMS portal his nationality was placed as Filipino, Danoy said.
Maybe he asked his driving school or someone to encode the data and Filipino was mistakenly placed as his nationality, Danoy added.
When Geong applied for a driver’s license on March 7, 2022, the data in his student permit would have been carried over as it was already in his portal, he added.
However, he could not really say what happened as he was not with the Bacolod LTO licensing division then, Danoy said.
Geong, alias Joginder Geyong and Kant Gupta, 40, who was arrested in Barangay Taculing, Bacolod City, on Monday was the holder of driver’s license FO1-22-001866.
The alleged LTO driver’s license was issued to Kant Gupta of 132 Zicron Street, City Heights Subdivision, Taculing, Bacolod City.
Kant Gupta was also the fake name used by Geong on a fraudulent Nepalese passport, the police said.
Cpl. Noel Aliño, Bacolod police director, on Thursday, questioned why the nationality on Geong’s driver’s license was listed as Filipino.
If it is an authentic LTO license, the police want to know who are behind its issuance, Aliño said.
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said authorities should strengthen their intelligence monitoring and should ensure that fake documents are not accepted by government agencies.
Government documents should have QR codes so they cannot easily be fabricated, he said.
The Embassy of India in Manila had requested the arrest and deportation of Geong, who was described as a notorious criminal with a history of serious offenses such as murder, attempted murder, extortion, and robbery.
He leads an organized crime syndicate and has been sentenced to life imprisonment for violating arms laws in India. There are also allegations linking him to the Khalistani Terrorist Group, a Bureau of Immigration report said.
He was brought to Manila by Bureau of Immigration operatives following his arrest in Bacolod on Monday.*