Palace warned of chaos if LTO goes to manual

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang should immediately order the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) to pay Stradcom, the LTO’s exclusive information technology provider, and prevent the return to the chaotic manual operations.

This was the gist of the report of the DoTC committee that looked into the dispute between the LTO and Stradcom over the transport agency’s refusal to pay the IT firm some P1 billion for services rendered in the past.

The report was filed by Rogelio Mercado, chair of the committee.

“The Committee urges the DoTC and LTO to fully assess the ramifications of a manual system and its overall consequences to the agency’s delivery of public service,” Mercado said in his report.

Breakdown

‘‘Malacañang should intervene as early as now to avert the possible breakdown of the LTO-IT system,” he added.

Mercado warned that the longer it takes for LTO and DoTC to settle its obligations to its IT provider, the more problems it will create.

At present the LTO-IT system is being operated by Stradcom, its exclusive IT provider, which handles approximately 50,000 transactions per day and is reportedly generating revenue for LTO of more than 15 billion pesos annually.

Mercado said, ‘‘The LTO should be ready with a viable and effective contingency plan to perform manual operations to prepare for the scenario that Stradcom will be forced to stop its operations because of LTO’s failure to settle its contractual obligations,” Mercado said. ‘‘We even doubt if LTO has the proper equipment such as typewriters or the accountable forms and supplies needed to perform manual operations.”

‘‘Given the magnitude of operations and volume of transactions, the manual system may only cause delays, worsen bureaucratic corruption and loss of revenues. The people have gotten used to getting their licenses or car registrations done within 30 minutes using the computerized process. With the manual system, it might take weeks or even months before a license card is released,” Mercado said.

Suit vs LTO chief

Stradcom has filed criminal charges against Virginia Torres, LTO chief who went on leave following her conflict with Stradcom, for refusing the pay the P1 billion LTO owed Stradcom.

Stradcom, represented by its president Cesar Quiambao and corporate secretary Eric Pilapil, filed the complaint in the Office of the Ombudsman in April.

Stradcom had claimed that Torres was liable for open disobedience and corrupt practices for refusing to pay the firm its share of the proceeds from LTO’s information technology-based services.

Rupa warning

In another development, the Road Users Protection Advocates (Rupa) warned the Office of the Ombudsman that the statements made by DoTC and Stradcom to discredit the plunder complaint against them are preempting the Ombudsman’s assessment of the case.

In a letter to the Office of the Ombudsman, Rupa president Raymundo L. Junia cited the press statements of DoTC and Stradcom that tended to preempt the Ombudsman’s assessment of the plunder complaint filed against DoTC and Stradcom officials.

‘‘The statements made before the press by Stradcom and DoTC officials dismissing our complaint also encroaches upon the authority of your office to assess the validity of our complaints and the concrete evidence we presented,” Junia said in his letter.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Jose de Jesus and Stradcom spokesperson Margaux Salcedo said last week the complaint filed by Rupa was meant to harass DoTC and Stradcom officials, and are not backed by evidence.

Rupa filed the plunder and graft charges against the officials on the basis, among others, of a memorandum from the legal division of the DoTC which said that the collection of interconnectivity fees is illegal because it is not included in the original build-own-operate contract.