PPP chief tapped to head MRT Corp.

Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas

The chief of the administration’s Public Private Partnership (PPP) Center has been appointed head of the Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC), operator of the train line along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa).

PPP Center Director Al Vitangcol III was one of several new officials appointed to key posts at agencies attached to the Department of Transportation of Communications (DOTC).

“These latest appointments are in line with the department’s goal of infusing new blood and recruiting highly qualified executives to resolve the myriad policy and operational issues in our transport systems,” Transport Secretary Manuel Roxas II said.

“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,” he said.

At the PPP center, Vitangcol used to review, initiate and recommend plans and policies related to privately-funded government projects, in consultation with relevant oversight and implementation agencies, and the private sector.

With an in-depth knowledge of information systems and experience working with large international and local banks as an information technology (IT) specialist, Vitangcol led the PPP team that conceptualized, designed and implemented Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) information system.

With Stradcom Corp.’s contract expiring, the government plans to bid out this year LTO’s contract to a new IT service provider.

Roxas said Vitangcol’s experience as a lawyer and a civil engineer would help in resolving the legal and technical issues hounding the MRT line.

“The MRT is one of the major and fastest transport means for people traveling daily from the south to the northern part of the metropolis,” Vitangcol said.

“We intend to maintain a reliable system to prevent the trains from bogging down and disrupting operations, a mandate of the DOTC in serving the people with a convenient transport mode,” he said.

Other officials to get new posts are retired Commodore Roland Recomono, who was appointed administrator of the Office for Transportation Security; and Francisco Mendoza, who was named executive director of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.

Recomono was in charge of the Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization program under Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin. A 1979 Philippine Military Academy  graduate, he also served as the Naval Attache of the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC, USA in 2009. He was also the former assistant chief of the Naval Intelligence and Security Force.