THE plunder case filed by the Road Users Protection Advocates (RUPA) against the officers and directors of Stradcom Corp. is purely hogwash and was  filed primarily to harass the officials of the company because the complaint is baseless and clearly lacks merits.

This is according to Stradcom spokesperson Margaux Salcedo who said that the complaint contains general statements which does not even specifically point out what acts were committed that constitute plunder.

Salcedo questioned the credibility of Raymundo Junia, the representative of RUPA. “Apparently, there are some groups who would like to promote their personal interests at the expense of Stradcom.  We feel that the motives of the complainant in filing the case should be known,”  said Salcedo.

“With the recent attack by the Sumbilla group on the LTO IT facility last December 9, 2010, we feel that the filing of the plunder case is part of a concerted effort by these groups to deliberately bring down the company,” added Salcedo.

Based on the complaint filed before the Ombudsman, RUPA also lodged charges against  Undersecretary Aristotle Batuhan and Assistant Secretary Racquel Desiderio for allegedly giving undue advantage to Stradcom when they allowed Stradcom to collect interconnectivity fees.

The interconnectivity issue has been recycled time and again by these individuals posing as advocacy groups.

In fact, that issue has already been exhaustively examined by the Committee on Good Governance in 2009 and was resolved that the Build Own and Operate contract itself provided for the establishment of a digital information highway which allows interconnectivity among all LTO field offices as well as the provision of interconnection for other government agencies as the private sector.

Stradcom has built the infrastructure for the digital information highway for LTO and such facility is currently being used by other government agencies such as LTFRB, MMDA and vehicle emission testing centers in compliance with the Clean Air Act.

“The LTO itself has requested the Stradcom to develop such systems to interconnect the LTO with different agencies to address various needs to promote public safety, traffic management and environmental protection,” Salcedo said.

Salcedo is confident that the truth will come out and Stradcom is willing to answer all allegations point by point before the proper forum.