2 IT firms sue LTO, DOTC over 'illegal' project

MANILA, Philippines - Two information technology (IT) firms handling the real-time upload of car smoke test results issued by accredited private emission testing centers (PETCs) sued the Land Transportation Office, its computerization contractor Stradcom Corp., and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) over the allegedly “illegal” direct connect facility project.

Real Time Data Management Services Inc. (RDMS) and Eurolink Network International Corp. asked the Pasig regional trial court to stop Stradcom from continuing to operate the facility and to declare it illegal. The two IT firms also sought P7 million in damages from Stradcom.

RDMS and Eurolink are two of the four IT firms helping PETCs on the real-time upload of photographs taken of all mandatory car smoke tests conducted by PETCs.

DOTC Secretary Jose de Jesus had recently allowed the direct connect facility to operate for six months, during which the project will be studied if it is effective in cleaning up the whole car smoke testing process of anomalies.

Under the Clean Air Act, passed into law nearly 10 years ago, the LTO requires each car smoke test to be documented through a photograph and the real-time upload of these photographs to ensure that all vehicles that seeks renewal of their registration undergo the smoke test and prevent so-called “non-appearance” cases.

In their complaint, RDMS and Eurolink claimed the direct connect facility, which allowed PETCs to directly upload the test results to the LTO’s database without help from the four IT firms, was not subjected to public bidding.