LTO chief charged with P1.1-B graft

Manila, Philippines - Land Transportation Office chief Virginia Torres was charged yesterday with graft over her refusal to pay LTO information technology (IT) contractor Stradcom Corp. for its services, less than a year after she assumed the top post at the LTO and vowed to rid the agency of corruption.

Officials of Stradcom, led by president Cezar Quiambao, filed charges against Torres before the Office of the Ombudsman and claimed she had “been planning and authoring the operational collapse of Stradcom” by withholding receivables from the LTO worth P1,171,323,253.48.

Stradcom also asked the Ombudsman to place Torres under preventive suspension. The STAR tried contacting Torres but her cell phone could not be reached. LTO spokesman Bobby Ricohermoso said the agency cannot issue a reaction until they have received a copy of the complaint.

Earlier, Stradcom accused Torres of conniving with Quiambao’s former partners in a failed takeover of the firm’s facilities last year. Since then, the agency has not paid the firm for its services.

Torres earlier said there should be a court order to authorize the payment, since two groups – one led by Quiambao, the other led by his former business partners – are fighting over control of Stradcom.

Stradcom corporate secretary Eric Gene Pilapil, however, said their contract states the LTO owes Stradcom, not Quiambao, the money for services rendered. The firm’s lawyer, Sabino Acut Jr., said Torres “does not need a court order for that.”

Stradcom said that on March 25, “instead of approving payment for the services validly rendered by Stradcom, Torres issued a memorandum advising LTO personnel to prepare for a possibility of IT system shutdown owing to legal action pending before the courts in the light of the intra-corporate dispute within Stradcom.”

The firm said the Department of Transportation and Communication stated that it had directed Torres to pay all the amounts due to the company.