Stradcom payment case elevated to SC full court

The entire Supreme Court bench will now handle the plea of Stradcom Corporation to block the implementation of a lower court's order favoring the Land Transportation Office's (LTO) refusal to pay its information technology (IT) service provider some P1.2 billion in contractual obligations. In last Tuesday's session, all Supreme Court justices agreed that Stradcom's petition will be elevated from a court division to the court en banc. Supreme Court spokesman and Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez has confirmed to GMA News Online that the en banc has accepted Chief Justice Renato Corona's pronouncement that the Stradcom case should be tackled by the full court. Last June, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 222 ruled in favor of LTO head Virginia Torres' decision to hold in abeyance the payment of P1.2 billion to Stradcom because of an ongoing intra-corporate dispute between factions led by Stradcom chair Cezar Quiambao and businessman Bonifacio Sumbilla. Torres is perceived to be allied with the Sumbilla group, but the LTO chief has since denied the allegation. The Quezon City court said that the P1.2 billion that LTO withheld from Stradcom should be deposited and held in escrow at the state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines until the intra-corporate war between the Quiambao and Sumbilla groups is resolved. Assailing the lower court's order, Stradcom chair Quiambao sought redress from the Supreme Court last July 6. In its petition for certiorari, Stradcom asked the SC to void the Quezon City court's order, on the ground that the IT company risks shutting down its operation, to the damage of the public. Quiambao vs Sumbilla The intra-corporate dispute between the Quiambao and Sumbilla groups became prominent in the public agenda because of the December 2010 takeover of the LTO, paralyzing the agency's operations for hours nationwide. During the takeover, armed men supposedly linked to the Sumbilla group refused to let Stradcom technicians handling the LTO’s computerized database to enter the area to perform their work. Quiambao had accused LTO chief Torres of conspiring with the Sumbilla group and of having prior knowledge of the planned takeover of the Stradcom office because on the day of the takeover, Torres and her aide were seen on Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) entering the Stradcom building with Sumbilla and businessman Aderito Yujuico. However, during a Department of Justice investigation earlier this year, Torres had maintained her neutrality in the intra-corporate war. The DOJ panel, led by Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, recommended to the Department of Transportation and Communication the dismissal of Torres, who then went on a 60-day leave pending the DOTC's own investigation into the matter. Torres, labeled as a "shooting buddy" of President Benigno Aquino III, returned to her post last June, in the wake of the resignation of then DOTC Secreatary Jose "Ping" De Jesus. De Jesus has maintained that Torres' return to the LTO has nothing to do with his resignation. — LBG, GMA News