THE HEADS OF two transport agencies won’t be reporting for work until early next year following the Ombudsman’s decision to impose six-month suspensions on both for double charging the motorists computer fees totalling P13.379 billion from 2019 to 2025.
Ordered suspended without pay were Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chief Vigor Mendoza and Office of Transportation Cooperatives Chairman Teofilo Guadiz III for the continued use of the STRADCOM-operated LTO information technology system that generated P13.379 billion in computer fees charged to motorists from 2019 to 2025.
The two were suspended for six months until the resolution of their administrative case for grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
The Ombudsman said the old system continued to be used despite the rollout of the Land Transportation Management System, the LTO’s replacement platform.
The Commission on Audit (COA) found that the parallel use of the two systems resulted in an “additional burden and expense for the transacting public” through STRADCOM computer fees, the Manila Times reported.
The Ombudsman said the continued use of the old system showed a “patent disregard of established government policy” to transition LTO operations to the LTMS.
Mendoza and Guadiz are both former LTO chiefs, with Mendoza issuing memoranda in 2023 that effectively revived the old system’s parallel use with the LTMS.
The suspension order, dated Aug. 17, 2026 is immediately executory.