Lantin sues critic, 3 newsmen for libel

A P10-million libel suit was filed by Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chairman Dante Lantin yesterday against a transport leader and three newsmen from a tabloid over a report that some P50 million in LTFRB intelligence funds were "missing."

Charged before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office were Efren de Luna, president of the Philippine Confederation of Drivers Organizations-Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (PCDO-ACTO) and Abante reporter Nilo Marasigan, managing editor Nicolas Quijano Jr. and publisher Allan Macasaet. PCDO-ACTO is an organization of jeepney operators and drivers.

The case stemmed from a news story published in Abante last Oct. 19 about "missing" intelligence funds of the LTFRB. The source of the story was De Luna who was supposedly asking the Commission on Audit (COA) to investigate the anomaly.

In his complaint, Lantin denied the accusation, saying, the "derogatory remarks were evidently and unmistakably concocted out of ill-will and/or revenge."

Lantin noted that he earlier rejected the "importuning" of De Luna to legalize the fake franchises obtained by some jeepney operators from the LTFRB-National Capital Region "through fixers."

He added the report had ‘absolutely no basis" because the cumulative intelligence funds given to the LTFRB from 1992 to present or during his administration was only P2.7 million and not P50 million as De Luna claimed. – Sheila Crisostomo