De Jesus asked Noy to discipline LTO chief

MANILA, Philippines – Outgoing Secretary Jose de Jesus of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) had asked President Aquino to discipline Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Assistant Secretary Virginia Torres but his recommendation was ignored.

DOTC sources said the frustration felt by De Jesus over the President’s snub of the request was a major factor for his and his team’s resignation early this month.

De Jesus, they said, made a “respectful request” to the President last April 6 in a memorandum sent through Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. seeking “disciplinary action” against Torres, who is said to share Aquino’s shooting hobby. A copy of the memo was obtained by The STAR.

Torres, whose agency is under the DOTC, had been defiant of various orders given by De Jesus on matters aimed at implementing reforms at the LTO, the sources said.

“We respectfully request His Excellency, President Benigno Aquino III, to exercise his disciplinary power against Assistant Secretary Virginia Torres, chief of Land Transportation Office, for gross neglect of duty and gross insubordination for her continued refusal to perform official duties and obey as well as implement lawful orders from her superiors,” De Jesus said in the memo.

Among Torres’ insubordination cases cited by De Jesus were her refusal to pay LTO’s outstanding dues to information technology provider Stradcom Corp., and failure to come up with a new private emission testing system that would be cheaper for motorists.

De Jesus said Torres’ defiance to pay Stradcom led to the IT firm invoking a force majeure event to cut off its services to LTO which “impaired normal operations of LTO IT facilities nationwide.”

Torres was forced to go on a 60-day leave of absence last April as a result of a complaint filed against her by Stradcom and for allegedly helping a group of businessmen, led by Aderito Yujuico and Bonifacio Sumbilla, to stage a failed illegal takeover of the main operations center in the LTO head office in Quezon City last December.

The Department of Justice, which formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the complaint, found merit in the Stradcom charge and recommended the filing of administrative charges against Torres.

But while Torres’ 60-day leave of absence expires this June 19, an administrative charge has yet to be filed against her.

Meanwhile, De Jesus said the new test emission system “was expressly required to be in place and implemented not later than 180 days from the issuance of a subject memorandum,” which was last February.

He said the undersecretary for Road and Maritime Transport was mandated to monitor strict compliance by LTO of the memorandum, but nothing was done about it, De Jesus said.

He added that Torres has failed to submit a report on the new emission test system as directed in the memorandum.

De Jesus also cited Torres’ failure to conduct a study on two proposals for the LTO’s Motor Vehicle Registration Card Project and submit a comprehensive report on the proposals.