Search on for new LRTA chief

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is screening applicants for the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) administrator, an official said yesterday.

DOTC Secretary Manuel Roxas II said that a number of candidates have been interviewed and the process will be completed by next week.

Rafael Rodriguez resigned as LRTA chief last March supposedly to resume his political career in Cavite amid two controversies involving his management of the LRTA, which supervises Metro Manila’s elevated railways.

Rodriguez is the Liberal Party Cavite chapter chairman and has among his members Reps. Irineo Maliksi and Joseph Emilio Abaya. Roxas is the president of the LP.

LRTA sources said there was a strong Cavite lobby, led by Maliksi, to select a Caviteño or an ally, identified as a certain Joseph Dilay – whose family owns Genials, which used to be a maintenance contractor for the LRT Line 1 – to replace Rodriguez.

However, Roxas said that belonging to a certain province is not a basis for selection as new LRTA administrator. “One only has to be a Filipino. And competent,” Roxas told The STAR.

 Last Feb. 14, LRTA resident ombudsman Ruby Gonzales initiated an inquiry and asked Rodriguez to explain the agency’s employment of 36 consultants.

Rodriguez’s resignation also followed reports that Metro Manila’s elevated railways failed to get their yearly rehabilitation and repair during the last Holy Week break, after the agency failed to procure vital replacement parts for the LRT Line 1 annual rehab during the long Holy Week break.