De Lima softens on LTO chief

MANILA, Philippines - Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima has accepted the staying power of Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Virginia Torres even after her office recommended sanctions for the purportedly illegal takeover of the agency’s information technology (IT) systems contractor Stradcom Corp. last December.

After an earlier “word war” with Torres, De Lima now defends the decision of President Aquino to keep the LTO chief in her post despite DOJ’s findings on her liability in the Stradcom incident.

“It’s really President Noy’s call. It’s really important that he puts people whom he trust very well in key positions,” she told The STAR in an interview yesterday.

De Lima said the President himself made public his trust in Torres and even defended her from critics when she resumed work last June 19.

“What can we do if the President has so much trust and confidence in Torres? Again, our recommendation against her was merely recommendatory. We just investigated upon request of (Transportation) Secretary Ping de Jesus and we just did our job,” she said.

De Lima’s pronouncement was a complete turnaround on her earlier stance on the issue. When the President announced the LTO chief’s resumption in office after a 60-day leave, De Lima raised her opposition.

“I would not want her (Torres) to have the last say,” she said at a press conference last week.

She was, however, only responding to the statement of Torres in a TV interview where she said she was irked by the DOJ’s involvement in the controversy hounding LTO and Stradcom.

De Lima said she could not understand why Torres was displeased by the DOJ’s announcement of its recommendations against her – especially when it was done after the Department of Transportation and Communications already made the report public.

“You know me I talk straight, and no one has the right to do that to the DOJ,” she stressed.

In its report, the DOJ recommended the filing of administrative actions against and the preventive suspension of Torres for alleged complicity in the failed takeover. Torres had denied liability and even claimed she was not accorded due process in the DOJ probe.