3 new DOTC execs appointed

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) kicks off 2012 with three highly experienced executives being appointed by President Benigno Aquino III to key posts in attached agencies, the DOTC said in a statement Wednesday.

Internationally recognized information technology expert and lawyer Al S. Vitangcol III was appointed as the new general manager of the Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC) effective on January 2.

Retired commodore Roland Recomono and the former Naga city mayor’s chief of staff, Francisco Mendoza, were appointed as administrator of the Office for Transportation Security and executive director of the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulator Board (LTFREB), respectively.

Vitangcol said in the statement that they “intend to maintain a reliable system to prevent the [MRT] trains from bogging down and disrupting operations, a mandate of the DOTC in serving the people with a convenient transport mode.”

Vitangol had worked on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects as a director in the PPP Center of the Philippines. He “led the PPP team that conceptualized, designed, and implemented LTO’s information system,” DOTC said in the statement.

According to the official website of Vitangcol, “he is the Philippines’ first (and only lawyer) EC-Council certified Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI).”

The International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) is “a member-based organization that certifies individuals in various e-business and information security skills,” and “has trained over 80,000 individuals and certified more than 30,000 security professionals,” its website said.

Vitangcol has also written three books entitled “Computers for Lawyers,” “technoLAWgy: A Lawyer’s Guide to Information Technology in the Practice of Law,” and “Legal Research in Practice,” his website said.

Meanwhile, Recomono, a former Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization program chief,  has been appointed as administrator of the Office for Transportation Security effective Wednesday.

Recomono, who graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1979, had served as “the Naval Attache of the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC, USA in 2009” and “was also the former assistant chief of the Naval Intelligence and Security Force (NISF) of the Philippines,” the statement said.

Mendoza, a “former budget officer and chief of staff of the mayor of Naga City” and former “executive director of the Metro Naga Development Council,” has been appointed as an “executive director at LTFRB to help chairman James Jacob in enhancing the current services at LTFRB,” DOTC said.

“The appointment of Mendoza will be a big boost for LTFRB in instituting reforms that will further improve services at the Board,” Jacob said. “His IT expertise will also come handy in our computerization plans to bring our database accessible to decision makers in real-time,” DOTC said.

DOTC secretary Mar Roxas said that “these latest appointments are in line with the department’s goal of … recruiting highly qualified executives to resolve the myriad policy and operational issues in our transport systems.”

“They will be part of the core team in our line agencies that will help provide the people a convenient, safe and reliable mode of transport,” Roxas said.