DOJ panel ends probe into Stradcom takeover

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has wrapped up its inquiry into the takeover of the Stradcom facility in Quezon City in December last year. Stradcom Corp., the Land Transportation Office's information technology service provider, is the subject of a corporate war between the groups of businessmen Cezar Quiambao and Bonifacio Sumbilla. On Thursday, DOJ Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, head of the panel looking into the takeover, announced that the fact-finding report may be out "next week." He clarified that the inquiry will only cover the take-over of the Stradcom office and not the corporate dispute within the firm. "[The corporate war] is an issue beyond us. That calls for a judicial determination," Baraan said at a news briefing. On December 9 last year, armed men linked to the Sumbilla group took over the Stradcom facility at the LTO compound in Quezon City, paralyzing LTO operations for hours. The armed men supposedly refused to let Stradcom technicians handling the LTO’s computerized database enter the area and perform their work. LTO head Virginia Torres herself was embroiled in the controversy after Quiambao's group accused her of favoring Sumbilla's group and of knowing about the takeover of the Stradcom office inside the LTO compound. Torres had denied being biased in favor of the Sumbilla group, which had presented itself as the newly-elected board of directors of Stradcom. Sumbilla said a certified true copy of Stradcom's General Information Sheet from the Securities and Exchange Commission named him and his supporters as Stradcom's new board of directors and officers. The GIS he presented was dated December 1, 2010. However, Quiambao's group also presented a different GIS naming them as Stradcom's board of directors. But the information sheet was dated May 31, 2010, seven months older than the document Sumbilla presented. – VVP, GMA News