Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 17) — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Thursday said a Quezon City court restrained the awarding of the contract for the production of plastic cards used for physical driver’s licenses, placing 1.7 million backlogs in limbo.
“Nakikita ko po ito as a temporary setback. 20 days lang po ‘to. ‘ Di po ito permanent injunction,” LTO Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza said in a press briefing.
[Translation: I see this as a temporary setback. It’s only 20 days. This is not a permanent injunction.]
The court’s 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) follows a petition from the company AllCard, Inc. which was disqualified from the bidding for the supply deal, despite having the lowest bid at P176.85 million, far from the winning bid of P240.1 million.
It also claimed there was a lack of transparency from the LTO in disqualifying AllCard.
“Wala pa ako ro’n. Pero from my review of the documents presented to me, mukhang dumaan naman sa tamang proseso,” Mendoza said.
[Translation: I’m not there yet. But from my review of the documents presented to me, it seemed that it went through the right process.]
The LTO official expressed confidence that they can prove at the upcoming hearing on Aug. 22 that there was no basis for the stop order.
In a separate statement, the LTO said it is currently consulting and coordinating with the Department of Transportation, particularly on cushioning the impact of the court’s decision on its clients.
