Berroya new telecoms czar

MANILA, Philippines – After his unceremonious relief from the Land Transportation Office (LTO), former police general Reynaldo Berroya was placed in charge of communications at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza said Berroya would oversee the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) and the Telecommunications Office (TELOF) and be in charge of the communications sector.

Berroya will also represent the DOTC and the government in international meetings on telecommunication issues of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC).

But he will keep his rank as assistant secretary of the DOTC, Mendoza said in an interview. He, however, stressed that Berroya will not handle the DOTC national broadband network project, which will remain under Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso III.

Berroya said he is expected to be promoted to undersecretary with his transfer from the LTO to the DOTC where he was already an assistant secretary for special concerns before his LTO post.

He said he was satisfied with the new appointment. “I’m thanking the President,” Berroya said.

The LTO recently drew fire from the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), headed by Antonio “Bebot” Villar, Jr., over the alleged anomalous registration of imported cars in the LTO’s regional district office in Cebu.

The PASG discovery of numerous anomalous registrations prompted Mendoza to sack LTO Cebu head Alex Leyson.

In an interview, Berroya said he is facing new challenges as alter ego of the DOTC secretary in supervising regulations in the telecommunications industry.

He ruled out politics in his new post, saying that he had already spent three years in LTO — two years as regional director and one year as the head of the agency.

“In the military service two years is the regular tour of duty of military commanders, I have spent three years in LTO,” he said.

In his one-year stint at the LTO, Berroya said he was able to uplift the image of the agency as shown in the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) report that ranked the LTO as the fourth less corrupt government agency.

He said he also succeeded in laying the groundwork for the full computerization of the agency, the interconnection of private emission testing centers and the expansion of interconnectivity system so that the public can access the LTO database through text message in verifying status of vehicles. – Rainier Allan Ronda, Perseus Echeminada