{"id":70299,"date":"2016-02-09T05:03:34","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T10:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=70299"},"modified":"2016-02-09T05:03:34","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T10:03:34","slug":"ombudsman-suspends-lrta-execs-for-anomalous-maintenance-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/02\/09\/ombudsman-suspends-lrta-execs-for-anomalous-maintenance-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Ombudsman suspends LRTA execs for anomalous maintenance deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_19717\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19717\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/640px-LRT_Blum_2011.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-19717\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19717\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/640px-LRT_Blum_2011.jpg\" alt=\"LRT 1 (Wikipedia photo)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/640px-LRT_Blum_2011.jpg 640w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/640px-LRT_Blum_2011-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19717\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">LRT 1 (Wikipedia photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">MANILA &#8211; The Office of the Ombudsman suspended the top officials of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) causing them to file graft charges after finding probable cause.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">LRTA former Administratos Melquiades Robles, Federico Canar Jr., Dennis Francisco, Evelyn Macalino, Elmo Stephen Triste, Eduardo Abiva, Nicholas Ombao, Roger Va\u00f1o, Maynard Tolosa, and Juliet Labisto are among those who are facing the trial before the Sandiganbayan, and were also found guilty of conducting misconduct and were suspended for six months. Their suspension will be convertible to a fine of their six months salary in case of separation from service.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">According to the Office of the Ombudsman, the officials violated Section 2(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the anomalous implementation of maintenance and janitorial contracts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Service providers Lilia Diaz and Dennis Acorda are also facing graft charges.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In January 2009, investigation showed that LRTA entered a joint venture contract for the maintenance of trains, rails, and depot facilities of the LRT Line 1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The joint venture contract was supposed to deploy at least 793 workers and janitors in entire LRT stations but the Field of Investigation Office found out that only 209 personnel were only deployed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A total of P400.6 million was paid in the joint venture but \u201cthe transactions done had been processed without payrolls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The joint venture contract were extended until July 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Joint Venture indicated that the deviation from its minimum commitment is not justified. And the LRTA officials cannot claim that they have done their regular duty as they have given in to the demands of the private contractor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201c&#8221;Instead of pushing for the implementation of the awarded contract, the respondents agreed to the reduction of janitorial manpower,&#8221; Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said in an interview with The Philippine Star.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA &#8211; The Office of the Ombudsman suspended the top officials of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) causing them &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":19717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-70299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-rewrite","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}