President Marcos should be made aware of the impending appointment to the LTO which could work at cross-purposes to his administration’s goal of good governance
The Land Transportation Office is the frontline agency of the government under the Department of Transportation (DOTr) whose primary mission is to rationalize land transportation services and facilities, promote safety in land travel, and provide fast and efficient services to the land transport sector.
Hence, it performs a vital role in our over-all socio-economic development program.
The agency is now led by an officer-in-charge pending the appointment of a permanent head. To fill up the vacancy, two Cabinet officials have endorsed the appointment of a new LTO chief.
In late June, Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista sent a letter to the Office of the President through Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin endorsing the appointment of Atty. Vigor D. Mendoza II as DOTr assistant secretary and LTO chief.
But Secretary Bautista made it very clear that the endorsement was based on the recommendation by Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin C. Abalos Jr. Why the Interior Secretary is endorsing Mendoza as LTO chief is unclear.
What we gathered is that the lawyer-nominee is a former board member and officer-in-charge of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) who was sacked from government service for alleged graft practices more than two decades ago.
It appears that in 1999, then President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, through his Executive Secretary Ronaldo B. Zamora, issued Administrative Order 97 for the dismissal of Mendoza as LTFRB board member, as recommended by the Presidential Commission Against Graft and Corruption (PCAGC).
Mendoza was dismissed for violation of Section 3(a), Republic Act 3019, as amended, and Section 4(c), of RA 6713, based on a complaint that he, as officer-in-charge of LTFRB at that time, lifted the moratorium on processing of public utility buses applications on his own, contrary to the existing policy of the board, a collegial body.
The PCAGC said a closer look at Mendoza’s memorandum had a net effect of a policy change, effectively lifting the moratorium policy.
Before this, the LTFRB, under then chairman Dante M. Lantin issued Memorandum Circular 97-009 dated August 6, 1998 re-imposing the moratorium on the acceptance, processing and resolution of all applications, including those pending, for certificates of public convenience for the operation of buses in Metro Manila and on provincial routes given the fact that those issued certificates of public convenience (CPCs) terminating outside Metro Manila have been entering Metro Manila as far as Cubao and other points inside Metro Manila and also the difficulty of monitoring their operations to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of their franchises.
Mendoza’s appointment as LTO chief could open the floodgates for potential conflict of interest since the lawyer is said to own and operate a fleet of modernized public utility vehicles.
President Marcos, whose appointments to key economic posts were received favorably by those in the know, should be made aware of the impending appointment to the LTO which could work at cross-purposes to his administration’s goal of good governance.
Why the rush?
While at this, reports indicate that the Transportation Department has awarded the driver’s license cards supply contract to the winning bidder, Banner Plasticard, Inc.
But what’s this we’re hearing that the process seemed to have, in transport parlance, exceeded the speed limit?
The other bidder, AllCard Inc., is said to have submitted a request for reconsideration upon receipt of the disqualification notice. But the RR was denied on June 20.
Based on RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Law, the losing bidder after the denial of RR may file a protest and submit a verified position paper within seven calendar days.
Given this scenario, the government agency is supposed to wait for the lapse of the seven-day window to file a protest, before they award contract to the winning bidder, with or without an advance letter signifying its intent to file a protest.
Despite efforts of the agency to assure the public that the bidding and procurement process for the license cards to be used by the LTO was “aboveboard”, it seems the DOTr chose to take the faster lane. It released the decision to award the contract to Banner on June 22, five days short of the seven-day window to file a protest.
We were also told that Banner’s total bid was P42M higher than AllCard’s.
Surprising? Not really.
Illegal? We can only assume.
Unfair? We can only ask.
Insiders say that some industry players were surprised the DOTr did not wait for the other bidder to file a protest.
They could have taken that route to prove that their post-disqualification process was, indeed, “aboveboard.”
This could have cleared assumptions and settled doubts that they were favoring the winning bidder.
But since the DOTr already awarded the contract to Banner, we can only ask, why the rush?
(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)