The Quezon City Regional Trial Court has stopped the Land Transportation Office’s award of the contract for materials for driver’s license cards.
Branch 215 Judge Rafael Hipolito issued a temporary restraining order to Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista and Land Transportation Office Chief Vigor Mendoza II not to proceed with the award.
LTO, in a statement, said it respects the decision of the court, but lamented that the TRO is “certainly a major setback on our goal of addressing the backlog on the physical driver’s license which we target to complete by September this year.”
The backlog is 1.7 million as of this month, “mounting every day considering the number of applications we are receiving for new, and the renewal of driver’s license on a daily basis,” it stressed.
AllCard Inc., the losing supplier, filed a petition with the Quezon City court, accusing the Department of Transportation’s centralized bids and awards committee committed grave abuse of discretion for disqualifying AllCard from the bidding despite presenting the lowest bid at P176.8 million, which was below the P240.12 million approved budget for the licenses.
It claimed that the DOTr issued the award to Banner even though the period to file a protest was not yet through. Hipolito said there was merit in the petition of AllCard Inc. through its vice president for sales Carlo Enrico Jarlego to stop the awarding of a supply contract to Banner Plasticard.
He agreed with AllCard’s allegations that DOTr issued a notice of award to chosen bidder Banner Plasticard “even before the lapse of the period to file a protest.”
“This case, unfortunately, reeks with unfairness or injustice to the petitioner who was clearly deprived of its right to due process and deserving judicial intervention,” the court’s order read.
“Nevertheless, the Land Transportation Office, under the leadership of Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, assures its commitment in adhering to the legal process,” LTO said.
“Right now, we are consulting and coordinating with the Department of Transportation, particularly on the aspect of cushioning the impact of the court’s decision to our clients. We hope that this issue would be addressed in the soonest possible time because it is the Filipino people who would certainly suffer from a prolonged legal battle,” it added.