Land Transportation Office chief Alfonso Tan Jr. has resigned from his post “due to family reasons,” Malacañang said on Sunday.
Tan will be replaced by lawyer Roberto Cabrera III, executive director of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, who is expected to assume his new post today.
Tan’s superior, Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Abaya insisted that he did not fire the LTO chief who would be stepping down on Monday, Jan. 4, 2016. “He wasn’t sacked. He voluntarily resigned in November because of family,” Abaya said.
But other sources said that Tan’s ouster was a result of mounting criticisms over his handling of the backlog of drivers’ licenses and plates.
Cabrera for his part vowed to resolve the issues hounding the agency.
In an interview over dzMM radio, Cabrera said he would meet with the legal department to take up these issues.
Cabrera said the LTO may start releasing new plates and licenses by May. But he also admitted that he couldn’t tell as yet when the backlog would be fully resolved.
“At this point, it will be difficult for me to tell how long will I take to deliver them in a span of weeks or months. But we are fast-tracking all,” Cabrera said.
Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., quoting Abaya “requested Tan to hold on until a new appointment is made by President [Benigno Aquino III]. The recommended replacement is Roberto Cabrera. We have yet to receive a copy of the appointment. We hope to get a copy of the appointment by tomorrow,” Coloma said on Sunday.
Tan, an appointee of former Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II, has been LTO chief since September 2011 when he replaced Virginia Torres, who died of heart attack last Saturday.
Torres was forced to retire from the LTO after a video footage showed her playing in a casino despite the ban on government officials.
Even after her term at LTO, Torres also figured in a controversy with the Bureau of Customs for supposedly using her influence and dropping the name of President Benigno Aquino III for the release of container vans of merchandise.
Tan got embroiled in a controversy as thousands of drivers and vehicle owners waited for months before being able to get their new driver’s licenses and license plates.
Tan used to be part of the bidding committee which granted the P480-million license plate contract to Knieriem BV Goes and Power Plates Development Concept Inc. (JKG-PPI) which was disallowed by the Commission on Audit last year.
Tan blamed the CoA for the massive snafu when the watchdog stopped LTO’s payment to its card supplier for the last 20 years Amalgamated Motors Philippines Inc. in 2013. It took LTO years before it finally awarded a new contract to a card maker.
Among the major legal problems Cabrera will face is the Manila regional trial court ruling stopping the award and payment of the driver’s license card supply contract to Allcard Philippines Inc.
CoA also issued a notice of disallowance against the LTO license plate standardization program, leaving the agency with no funds to pay other supplier, Dutch-Filipino consortium PPI-JKG Philippines Inc.
The LTO has coordinated with the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to challenge the orders of the COA and the Manila RTC.
