THE chairman of the House committee on transportation and communications yesterday urged the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to settle with dispatch its supposed obligations to Stradcom to avoid the looming major shutdown on its operations.

Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado said the LTO should pay the services that Stradcom rendered since 2010 to avoid a possible disruption of operations in the LTO-IT system which could result to possible loss of P15 billion in government revenues.

This came about after the committee grilled officials on whether or not the LTO is ready to meet the daily transaction demand on a manual status if Stradcom would not be able to render services because the LTO has not compensated the company since 2010.

It must be recalled that the LTO during the time of Assistant Secretary Virgie Torres withheld the payment to Stradcom citing the “intra-corporate squabble” between Stradcom President Cesar Quiambao and the group of businessmen Bonifacio Sumbilla and Aderito Yujuico.

Assistant Secretary Torres then filed an interpleader with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court supposedly to determine which group to pay. The case on the other hand was used as a reason for withholding payment to Stradcom.