DoTC execs reaffirm support for President Aquino

Officials from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) reaffirmed their support for President Aquino amid allegations that Malacañang had meddled in key policy issues that eventually pushed Secretary Jose de Jesus to resign.

In a statement on Tuesday, transportation undersecretary Dante M. Velasco said De Jesus’ resignation was being used by “spin doctors” as a convenient excuse to discredit the President for “malicious” political goals.

“They put two and two together and came up with five,” he said.

Reports earlier this week quoted an unidentified transport undersecretary as alleging that the President had ordered the DoTC to cancel the government’s contract with Stradcom Corp., the Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) controversial information technology provider.

The order allegedly ran counter to a memo by De Jesus, which said canceling the Stradcom contract and reverting back to manual operations would be detrimental to the public.

Suspended LTO head Virginia Torres, a close friend of the President, earlier warned the agency’s personnel of the possibility of going back to manual operations for undisclosed reasons.

The memo was sent to Malacañang on May 23, a week before De Jesus’ resignation became public.

But Velasco said the President had never issued such an order to the DoTC, and that allegations that De Jesus resigned because of this supposed disagreement was “erroneous, malicious, and outrageous.”

Velasco said he was in agreement with De Jesus’ statement that he continues to hold Mr. Aquino in high esteem, and that his relationship with the Aquino family remained strong and cordial.

He said that many distorted news reports were “crafted by spin doctors out to drive a wedge between the DoTC management team and the President.”

Velasco is one of the three DoTC undersecretaries that have announced plans to leave with De Jesus.

De Jesus’ resignation will take effect on June 30. He will be replaced by the President’s defeated running mate, Manuel Roxas II, who visited the DoTC office for the first time on Thursday.

“We briefed him on several issues, but he (Roxas) kept his comments to himself,” Velasco said.

A briefing memo obtained by the Inquirer on Tuesday showed Roxas was briefed by key officials on the possible renegotiation or cancelation of the controversial NorthRail and Greater Maritime Access (GMA) ports contracts.

Roxas was also briefed on the upcoming restoration of the train service from Metro Manila to Naga City in Bicol.