DAVAO CITY—Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chairman Martin Delgra said a nationwide audit has shown that the regional office in Davao is the most corrupt in the agency.
Delgra said that he was shocked when he saw the numbers of case folder that their audit team uncovered in Region 11 and it was the first time he saw a regional director sign a document with an “okay for filing” even before it reached clerical personnel.
“I kept on reviewing the procedure. There is no such thing as going to the regional director and the RD will sign okay for filing then it will go back to the other offices,” he said.
“In the first place, the regional director is the last one who will sign the paper. What does this ‘okay for filing’ mean? It can only be because of money,” Delgra charged, adding that other regions are also doing the same thing.
He said that even if former LTFRB 11 director Benjamin Go has rendered his resignation, they will still look into the alleged anomalies involving Go and they will file charges as soon as they are finished with their audits and investigations.
He also made mention of retired regional director Bruno Patricio, who was previously assigned in Regions 1 and 3, and is accused of issuing fake franchises to the operators.
Delgra said hundreds of stakeholders have asked in meetings what the agency is going to do with the franchises that Patricio issued before he retired in 2013.
“During our meeting with the stakeholders, the issue came up. The operators discovered it only after he retired. When they applied for renewal, the agency did not have records of their franchise,” Delgra said.
Meanwhile, three regional directors from Regions 5, 10 and 6 retired, while one from Region 11 resigned. The regional director of Region 8 was also suspended by the Ombudsman for three months due to neglect of duty.
Delgra said LTFRB 8 regional director Arthur Saippudin was allegedly involved in several anomalies based on audit findings and charges will be filed in due time.