Stradcom takes payment issue to SC

MANILA, Philippines—Information technology firm Stradcom Corp. has asked the Supreme Court to block the implementation of a lower court decision upholding the Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) refusal to pay the IT company what it owes.

In a 56-page petition for certiorari, Stradcom—the LTO’s exclusive IT systems provider—said the continued deprivation of its income could eventually force the company to cease its operations, which in turn would force the LTO to return to manual processing for its transactions.

“Stradcom’s LTO IT project is now on the brink of shutting down because of the assailed order,” said Stradcom chair Cezar Quiambao in a statement.

The company said that only the SC had jurisdiction over contractors of a government agency under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) law.

Last month, Judge Edgar Dalmacio Santos of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court upheld LTO chief Virginia Torres’ decision to withhold the agency’s payments to Stradcom, now totaling P1.2 billion.

The court also ordered the funds placed in an escrow account with the Land Bank of the Philippines, to be released when the intracorporate dispute at Stradcom—between chair Quiambao and businessman Bonifacio Sumbilla—is resolved.

Torres had also accused Stradcom of raking in excessive revenues from fees collected from the public that are not allowed under its original contract with the LTO.

The revisions to Stradcom’s contract were approved by officials of the former administration.

“Stradcom, which has not been paid since December 2010, needs its funds for its operating expenses and to honor its obligations to service repayments for project financing,” the company said in its petition to the SC.