PENDING the government’s review of Stradcom Corp.’s contract with the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Malacañang said that Stradcom was obligated to honor the deal.
“We’re still looking at reviewing the contract, so there’s still no decision either way on the Stradcom contract,” Malacanang spokesman Edwin Lacierda told a Palace briefing on Wednesday.
But Lacierda said that Stradcom, the information technology service provider of LTO, has an obligation to perform its services regardless of what its issues with the transportation are right now.
“They [Stradcom] have a responsibility to the public to provide the services that they are obligated (to render)),” he added.
“As to the legal issues surrounding the Stradcom contract, that (matter) is being reviewed right now by the DOTC [Department of Transportation and Communications],” the Malacanang spokesman said.
On the involvement of LTO chief Virginia Torres in an alleged attempt to take over Stradcom, Lacierda added that the President’s chief legal adviser Eduardo de Mesa was reviewing fact-finding report of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the matter.
Outgoing Transportation Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus has written a memorandum recommending what to do with the Stradcom contract, President Benigno Aquino 3rd told a press conference in Cotabato City on Wednesday.
During the press conference, the President defended Torres, who returned to work at LTO on Tuesday after her two-month vacation, from criticisms hurled against his purported shooting buddy.
Mr. Aquino pointed out that the LTO chief was the first who called his attention to the issue of Stradcom, particularly the P1.3-billion payment to the company each year for its services.
“At this point in time, the chief presidential legal counsel (de Mesa) is actually reviewing the findings of the DOJ but the bottomline is , let’s give the person [Torres] some credit,” the President said.
Torres returned to work on Tuesday from a 60-day leave of absence that she took in April amid controversies linking her, including an intra-corporate dispute in Stradcom Corp.
Her return and despite a recommendation from the DOJ that she be dismissed showed that Mr. Aquino doubted Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s competency, an opposition lawmaker said on Thursday.
Rep. Simeon Datumanong of Maguindanao, who served as Justice chief during the administration of then-President Gloria Arroyo, noted that President Aquino should have listened to his No. 1 legal adviser— de Lima in her capacity as DOJ secretary—on what action to take against Torres over a controversy between LTO and Stradcom Corp.
But the President did not, Datumanong said.
Torres drew flak after Stradcom accused her of refusing to pay the IT company some P1 billion in fees and of favoring another group of investors in Stradcom who were at odds with the firm’s current officials.
Her return, Datumanong said, indicated Mr. Aquino’s of lack of confidence in de Lima as a member of his Cabinet.
If I were in (the Justice secretary’s) place, it would be better if I just asked the President to look for somebody else,” he told the weekly Usaping Balita News Forum in Quezon City.
“When she [de Lima] makes a recommendation, it should be worth looking (into)and possibly implementing. When I was DOJ secretary, there was no recommendation that I made that President Arroyo did not implement, accept or agree to,” Datumanong said.
The President allowing Torres to return to work, the opposition lawmaker added, was the second time that Mr. Aquino ignored de Lima’s advice, the first one being the Justice chief’s recommendation that police and political officials behind a botched rescue of Chinese tourists from a hostage-taker in August 2010 be sanctioned by Malacañang.
Earlier, Rep. Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna party-list called for a House inquiry into the resignation of Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Jose de Jesus, whose abrupt quitting was
traced to his supposed disagreements with Torres.
Deputy Majority Leader Miro Quimbo said that the probe was unnecessary because de Jesus said that he resigned for health reasons.
He added in a text message also on Thursday that any investigation would be a “witch hunt.”
Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada agreed, saying that de Jesus had given his reasons for quitting his Cabinet job.
If the President and Torres were serious in ridding the government of questionable contracts, then they should call for a review of other deals between LTO and other private companies.
Zenaida Maranan, the president of the Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association Nationwide, also on Thursday said that the two could start with revisiting existing public-private partnership contracts.
On Wednesday, Mr. Aquino disclosed that there was ongoing review of the government’s contract with Stradcom.
He defended Torres and praised her for bringing to his attention the case of LTO’s IT service provider, particularly the questionable interconnectivity contracts with other government agencies and private firms.
Maranan asked the President to order a probe of Amalgamated Motors Philippines Inc. (AMPI), the supplier of drivers’ license cards to the LTO.
She claimed that AMPI has been operating without a valid contract for more than seven years.
The supplier’s contract, according to Maranan, expired in 2003 and AMPI since then has been operating by virtue of a quantum meruit.
Cris G. Odroni, The Manila Times
with reports from Llanesca T. Panti and Jefferson Antiporda
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