Palace unaware of request to reprimand LTO chief

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang is not aware of the purported memorandum of outgoing Transportation Secretary Jose de Jesus to President Aquino seeking to reprimand Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Virginia Torres.

Presidential Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said he was not aware of a specific request from De Jesus, but that there was an investigation and its results are being reviewed. “The process is still being undertaken and when complete then we will have a decision on what to do with that particular case,” he said. Carandang said due process and fairness will be observed in anything the administration will do. “The fairness is in the eye of the beholder, but we are going to make decisions, we are going to do the process based on what we feel is going to be for the good of the public,” he said.

“I can assure you the decisions that we make will be ultimately with the public interest in mind. We will come up with a decision that addresses all these issues adequately in a way that would really help improve the services of the LTO.”

Torres had reportedly defied various orders of De Jesus on matters aimed at implementing reforms at the LTO, sources said.

“We respectfully request His Excellency, President Aquino, to exercise his disciplinary power against Assistant Secretary Torres, chief of LTO, 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 memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR.

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’ refusal 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 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.