Transport group says LTFRB chief resigned due to politics

MANILA, Philippines - Politics in the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is to blame for the sudden resignation of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chairman Nelson Laluces last week, a public transport group said yesterday.

Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (ACTO) president Efren de Luna said he was deeply disappointed over Laluces’ resignation on Aug. 23, which was immediately accepted by DOTC Secretary Manuel Roxas II .

“As a stakeholder in the public transportation sector, we have been witness to the reforms that were put in place by Laluces at the LTFRB. We are saddened that Roxas accepted his resignation, allowing a ‘high-performing’ official to leave,” De Luna told The STAR.

De Luna urged Roxas and the new officials at the DOTC to visit the LTFRB and ask public utility jeepney and bus operators to ask if Laluces’ leadership had made any improvement in the agency.

“The problem is, they don’t know what is happening here on the ground and for obvious factionalism, they let a good man go just like that,” De Luna said.

He said “jeepney and bus operators and drivers will be the ones who suffer since we have to wait for a new person to be named, who is expected to need a period of time to study the position,” De Luna said.

De Luna said Laluces had even set up a complaints system thorugh text messages and other programs that allowed the transacting public to report the abuses and other shenanigans of erring LTFRB personnel.

“The LTFRB is clean now. Not only physically but also in terms of public service,” De Luna said.

The resignation of Laluces, who assumed the LTFRB top post during the time of Roxas’ predecessor, Jose de Jesus, was expected by DOTC observers who noted that he was a classmate of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., who is not an ally of Roxas.

De Luna said that pending franchise applications and other transactions related to the renewal and adjudication of certain pending cases will also undergo another review by the new officials.