The new DOTC team

Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas recently appointed three lawyers as his undersecretaries, but he emphasized that only one, Jose Perpetuo “Juju” Lotilla was hired principally to provide legal services.

Juju, younger brother of former Energy Secretary Raphael “Popo” Lotilla, will head the DOTC legal services sector. Mar tells me that given DOTC’s many problematic matters (Northrail, GMA’s RoRo projects, Piatco-NAIA, etc.), Juju’s experience in litigation (as former litigation head at Sycip, Salazar Law Office) “will be invaluable here.” Mar has given Juju the nickname “terminator of contracts,” the latter being in charge of getting DOTC out of problematic projects.

The others, he explains, were recruited principally for reasons other than law. “It just so happened that their higher education took them to law,” Mar pointed out.

Mar also tells us that Rene “Timmy” Limcauco will look out after DOTC’s “greenfields” as well as public-private partnership (PPP) projects. “Timmy was Stanford economics, a successful businessman (i.e. private sector disciplines) who spent three years structuring BOT projects for Price-Waterhouse and is therefore in short an investment banker-type who also happens to be a lawyer,” he said.

It has been reported in the papers that Limcaoco, a graduate of Ateneo Law School, owns the “Rapide” chain of car service garages. His family owns the company that distributes General Motors and Nissan vehicles in the country.

Meanwhile, Rafael “Paeng” Santos, who served as Defense Undersecretary under then Defense chief Avelino “Nonong” Cruz, got his industrial engineering and law degrees from the Ateneo. Paeng of course was from The Firm.

Mar pointed out that Paeng ran a large and complex bureaucracy (defense department) with lots of procurement as Undersecretary for Operations for several years. Paeng will handle operations too at the DOTC.

The DOTC chief emphasizes that all were successful, at the top of their profession in each of their careers, and took large pay cuts to join government. In short, he says they will all live off their nest eggs for a few years.

Mar stresses that the challenge to make meaningful and significant contributions motivates them. “In Maslow’s terms, they are in their ‘self-actualization’ phase,” he adds.

Traditionally, the DOTC was divided into four sectors - rail, air, road and sea transportation, but according to Mar, the skills required from each official under the old structure require him to be an expert in day-to-day operations, all the way to court litigation.

Under the new structure, all legal problems would be handled by a litigation expert, all operational services would be done by an operations expert and all new projects would be handled by a businessman.

And by the way, Mar says he has bid goodbye to his golf clubs last July 3, a day before his July 4 oath-taking.

Point of clarification

Here’s something from one of our readers on the brewing controversy between the National Printing Office (NPO) and the APO Production Unit.

“It is not true that the latter has only one printing press. Based on records, the NPO has 20 machines. Logically speaking, it is stupidity on the side of the agency if it has only one printing press but has 480 employees. In 110 years (10 decades) of existence, the agency has acquired machines to maintain its operations.

“It is the utmost objective of the NPO to ensure quality and efficient services by making sure that it is abreast with the current standards for printing. The agency makes sure that their equipment is up to date and is comparable to global standards.

“The National Printing Office even sends their employees and personnel to trainings and seminars to ensure that their skills are comparable to those in the private printing sector.

“Yes, it is true that the NPO subcontracts several printing jobs to private printers. There is a process on the subcontracting and one of these is through biddings/leasing. All private printers of the NPO were accredited by the government but it applies sanctions to those who cannot comply to their requirement, like blacklisting some of the company. This is to ensure that the NPO will finish all its printing jobs.

“The APO Production Unit should not call the issue as a mere black propaganda saying that the NPO does not want APO bidding for government printing jobs because it does not get hefty commissions.

“Based on records, APO also subcontracts its printing jobs to other private entities. In fact, APO subcontracts its printing jobs to a neophyte security printer known as ‘HFP’ with address at Pagsanjan, Laguna. However, this neophyte printer with only six months of operations also subcontracts its jobs to commercial printer in Sta. Mesa, Manila and Quezon City .

“Records show that APO has P1.1 billion losses in 2008 and P1.2 billion in 2009 and not only P900million as what their officials say. This does not yet include their 2010 operations. Still, APO is financially incapable to get government contracts. The question as to who will pay their debt remains and employees of NPO are worried that their agency might be the one to pay for the debt.

“It should also be noted that since the APO Production is now a GOCC, their officials and employees should also pass government’s eligibility test and the APO must also be subjected to stringent COA rules and regulations.

“It is a reminder to everyone that APO is printing accountable forms used by the government so their employees should be eligible and accountable.” – Name withheld upon request

Changes

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez has ordered the agency’s legal service to determine if there is legal basis to require that transshipment cargoes eventually to be entered under consumption entries are processed, assessed and paid for at their port of discharge.

Alvarez said he wanted to change the rules on transshipment because of their susceptibility to abuse and misuse.

The customs chief explained that while transshipment is one of the trade facilitation practices being implemented in all customs administrations in the world, its disadvantages to the government far outweigh the benefits it provides to importers and brokers.

Transshipment refers to the movement under customs control of imported cargoes from their original port of discharge to their final port of destination. As practiced, the port of discharge allows the transshipment of containers to the port of destination where the consumption entry will be filed and assessment of duties and taxes will be made.

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