Manila probers begin to audit taxi franchises

CEBU, Philippines – Investigators from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Manila have already started conducting an inventory of all taxi franchises illegally issued by the LTFRB-7 officials since 2003, but said they will not reveal any findings until they finish on Friday.

"Upon the advice of the audit team leader, we will refrain from issuing any statements at the moment. The official results of their audit and their recommendations will be released Friday," said LTFRB-7 regional director Benjamin Go.

The team of investigators headed by Nida Quibic, the head of the LTFRB Management and Information Division, was sent here to audit all taxi franchises to find out how many franchises were issued despite the moratorium.

Quibic, together with Lilia Coloma and Leah Rojas of the LTFRB Manila technical and legal divisions, respectively, will be here until Thursday to do the inventory. Go said the team cannot finish the audit in three days.

"Three days is too short to audit LTFRB-7. If we compare it with the 30 days it took to audit the much smaller LTFRB office in Baguio City before, I only hope that the audit team can cover as much as possible," Go said.

He believes that the results of the audit will confirm his earlier announcement that his predecessors managed to issue hundreds of taxi franchises even if the issuance of franchises was already suspended.

Go said the results may not be very encouraging, but he will accept whatever little help he can get.

After Go assumed his post last March 26 he asked the top LTFRB officials in Manila and the Department of Transportation and Communications to conduct an inventory of all taxi franchises issued by the LTFRB-7.

This after he found out that from 4,000 taxi franchises in Metro Cebu in 2003 the statistics went up to 6,000 because the former LTFRB-7 directors defied the moratorium order.

Go also accused some hearing officers of LTFRB-7 of violating the moratorium order issued by the national office. (FREEMAN)