Plunder rap filed vs Ping de Jesus

A road users’ group has included outgoing Transportation Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus in the plunder case it earlier filed against top officials of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) over the collection of interconnectivity fees.
In a statement yesterday, Raymundo Junia, president of the Road Users Protection Advocates (Rupa), said De Jesus was included Friday in the plunder case filed before the Ombudsman in April for the alleged illegal collection of almost P2.8 billion in “interconnectivity fees” by Stradcom, the information technology service provider of the Land Transportation Office.

Rupa noted that while De Jesus was on his way out, he was among the DoTC officials who allegedly “aided, abetted, connived or conspired with other DoTC and Stradcom officials” to allow the collection of the questionable fees.

“On one hand, there are the usual encomiums for his past services to the nation. On the other, there are the usual assessments of what has gone wrong with a once exemplar of a public official with a good reputation,” Rupa said in a motion to the Ombudsman.

“De Jesus has not, unfortunately, been the consistent exemplar that he is reputed to be. Rupa has no doubt that the good reputation that De Jesus once had is now in tatters,” the group said.

Among those charged with plunder by Rupa were DoTC Undersecretary Aristotle Batuhan, Assistant Secretary Racquel Desiderio and Stradcom Chair Cesar Quiambao.

Asked why De Jesus was included in the case only now, Junia said: “We were not sure how deep he was involved in the Stradcom corruption until he came too soon to absolve Batuhan and Desiderio… and described the original charge as harassment.”