TRANSPORTATION Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus on Sunday said the case against Undersecretary Aristotle Batuhan and Assistant Secretary Racquel Desiderio of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is obviously a harassment suit filed by individuals whose interest have been affected by the reforms being implemented by the department.
“This can be part of the desperate move of some unscrupulous groups who may be directly or indirectly threatened by the reform initiatives that these officials are pursuing within the LTO [Land Transportation Office] bureaucracy,” de Jesus stressed.
“Secretaries Batuhan and Desiderio continue to have the full support and trust of the department. We are confident that these officials will not be intimidated by this move to discredit them,” de Jesus added.
A group called Road Users Protection Advocates (Rupa) earlier filed a case against Batuhan and Desiderio for allegedly giving undue advantage to Stradcom Corp. regarding the payment of interconnectivity fees.
It was alleged that the department revoked the order of the LTO chief on leave, Virginia Torres, disallowing the direct connection facility which charged the public a lower fee for emission tests. “The truth, however, is that the DOTC merely issued a status quo order to ensure that the public will not lose the option of paying less for emission tests when registering their motor vehicles. On the other hand, Torres’s order of revocation removed that option to the detriment of the public,” de Jesus stressed.
De Jesus added: “The DOTC ordered Torres to conduct a study on the ideal setup for the PETC [private emission testing center] system. However, even after the lapse of the six-month period given to her, no report was submitted. The LTO officer in charge [Desiderio] is now conducting the said study to provide better services to the public.”
Also included in the complaint are the officers and board of directors of Stradcom Corp., the computer service provider of LTO.
Rupa also accused Batuhan and Desiderio of pressuring the LTO to release unpaid fees amounting to P662 million to Stradcom despite the interpleader case filed in the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City. “The truth of the matter is that [the] memorandum requiring the release of the funds for service actually rendered was not to any specific person of any faction of the two warring groups [in Stradcom] but to the corporation itself. It is emphasized that regardless of who emerges the real owner of Stradcom, any payment made shall inure to Stradcom as the party to the BOO [build-own-operate] agreement. The said memorandum does not run counter to the interpleader case, in fact, it complements the same by not requiring release to any of the factions” de Jesus said.
“LTO and DOTC have contractual obligations with Stradcom that we have to honor. The so-called intra-corporate dispute did not affect their day-to-day services hence, they need to be compensated for all the actual services rendered,” de Jesus said.
He argued that there is a need to evaluate the merits of the complaint as well as the possible motives of the complainants.
“We are not so familiar with the officials behind the ‘Rupa or Road Users Protection Advocates’ group and we are not sure what group or interests are they representing,” de Jesus said.
(Jojo Perez)
