DOJ recommends filing of charges vs LTO chief

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has recommended the filing of administrative charges against Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Virginia Torres for alleged complicity in the failed takeover of the agency’s information technology (IT) systems contractor Stradcom Corp. last Dec. 9.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has endorsed the recommendations issued by the fact-finding committee on the December takeover of Stradcom.

The fact-finding committee said Torres should “be administratively charged with gross neglect of duty, or gross incompetence, or in the alternative, with grave misconduct,” in connection with the failed takeover by the IT firm.

De Lima transmitted a copy of the report to Malacañang yesterday.

The committee recommended that Torres be asked to take an indefinite leave of absence or, if she refuses, be placed on preventive suspension.

“The preventive suspension is intended to prevent her from using her position or office to influence prospective witnesses or tamper with the records which may be vital in the prosecution of the case against her,” the committee explained.

Torres’ head executive assistant Menelia Mortel was also recommended for administrative sanctions and preventive suspension stemming from her involvement in the failed takeover.

Torres and Mortel were accused of conspiring with a group of businessmen Aderito Yujuico and Bonifacio Sumbilla in the attempt to take control of Stradcom central operations center building inside the LTO head office compound along East Avenue in Quezon City last Dec. 9.

The group allegedly hired security guards to force their way into the office.

The attempt caused disruptions in the LTO operations for seven hours that resulted in the suspension of public transactions.

Stradcom submitted a video footage showing Torres accompanying Sumbilla and Yujuico at the Stradcom building.

A report by the LTO security agency Urduja Security Services also said that Torres called a meeting of LTO security guards the night before and instructed them to stay away from the Stradcom controversy.

The Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) allowed the DOJ to investigate the Stradcom complaint.

The DOJ, for its part, formed the fact-finding committee to investigate the incident.

Torres denied the allegations, saying she had nothing to do with the case of the intra-corporate dispute within Stradcom.

The fact-finding committee headed by Undersecretary Francisco Baraan II believed otherwise.

“The committee believes that her inaction was deliberate. For, she could not have been that incompetent or negligent. In any event, she must at least answer for her gross incompetence or inexcusable negligence, assuming her inaction was not deliberate,” the committee said.