DOTC okays 60-day leave of controversial LTO chief

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) formally approved the application for a 60-day leave of absence of controversial Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Virginia Torres, paving the way for the assumption of DOTC Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs Raquel Desiderio as officer-in-charge (OIC) of the controversy-riddled agency.

DOTC Acting Secretary Aristotle Batuhan, DOTC Undersecretary for Legal Affairs serving as temporary head of department, said that he had received the leave application of Torres yesterday afternoon and had signed his approval pending clearances.

Batuhan explained that the usual leave duration was 10 days, and with the leave application of Torres to last 60 days, clearances had to be taken from certain offices.

Dante Velasco, DOTC Undersecretary for Public Information, Management Information Systems, recently named undersecretary in charge of the Road Transport Sector, said that the leave of Torres paves the way for the implementation of reforms at the LTO.

It was learned that President Aquino informed DOTC Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus last Friday afternoon that he had already told Torres to go on a leave of absence.

“The President called Secretary Ping de Jesus about his talk with Asec. Torres. Secretary Ping took this directive as a signal to address urgent tasks at the LTO and to quicken the pace of reforms in the entire LTO organization nationwide,” Velasco said earlier.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has investigated a complaint filed by the LTO’s computerization contractor, Stradcom Corp. against Torres and her head executive assistant, Menelia Mortel, for alleged conspiracy in the failed takeover of their central operations center last December by a group of businessman led by Aderito Yujuico and Bonifacio Sumbilla.

The DOJ recommended the filing of administrative charges of grave misconduct, and gross negligence against Torres and Mortel. It also found the two liable for the conspiracy charges and recommended that they asked to go on leave, or meted with a preventive suspension while facing the administrative case to be filed against them by the authorities.

In view of the DOJ ruling, the DOTC immediately ordered Mortel to go on leave but left Torres’ fate to Malacañang since she was an appointee of the President.

Tensions between Torres, who had refused to go on leave or resign despite the adverse finding by the DOJ, and Stradcom worsened after the release of the DOJ recommendation.

The beleaguered LTO chief refused to pay Stradcom its IT fees in the past several months, citing the inter-corporate dispute supposedly brewing inside the firm caused by the Sumbilla and Yujuico claim of ownership, despite an order by the DOTC for the LTO to pay the contractor for services it rendered to the agency. 

Under its build-operate-own contract with the LTO, Stradcom gets a share of computer fees paid by motor vehicle owners and applicants for drivers’ licenses and license renewals in exchange for putting up the computer systems of the LTO at no cost to the government.

Last week, Stradcom filed graft charges against Torres for her refusal to pay its share of the OT fees, which has reportedly reached up to P1 billion.

Torres and Mortel were named as respondents in an administrative complaint by Stradcom Corp. for their alleged conspiracy with the group of businessmen Aderito Yujuico and Bonifacio Sumbilla, who, along with hired security guards, tried to takeover control of the Stradcom central operations center building inside the LTO head office compound along East Avenue in Quezon City last Dec. 9.

The LTO operations were halted for seven hours during the takeover, causing technical problems in its offices nationwide and inconvenience to the public transacting business with the agency at the time.

Stradcom had submitted video footage of Torres accompanying Sumbilla and Yuhuico inside the Stradcom building and conferring with them that day.

A report by the LTO Security Agency Urduja Security Services has also said that Torres called a meeting of LTO security guards the night before the Dec. 9 incident and instructed them not to interfere with the Stradcom controversy.

The DOTC had decided to let the DOJ investigate the Stradcom complaint to assure the IT firm of an objective investigation. The DOJ, for its part, formed the fact-finding committee to undertake the probe, headed by Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III. 

In their report, the committee dismissed Torres’ denials that she had not aided the group of Sumbilla and that she conspired with them in the disruptive takeover. She stressed that she did not lift a finger to help either side and had maintained impartiality in the case of the intra-corporate dispute within Stradcom.

“The committee believes that her inaction was deliberate. For, she could not have been that incompetent or negligent. In any event, she must at least answer for her gross incompetence or inexcusable negligence, assuming her inaction was not deliberate,” the committee report said.