QC Court issues TRO vs. driver’s license supplier contract

A TRO was issued to stop the award of contract for the supply of DLs

A Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QC RTC) has issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) versus the awarding of the contract on the driver's license plastic card production. Banner Plastic Card, Inc., bagged the multi-million peso contract back in June.

QC RTC Branch 215 Presiding Judge Rafael Hipolito, found merit in the petition of AllCard Inc., – the other bidder for the supply of LTO plastic cards – to stop the awarding of the contract. According to AllCard’s petition, the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) Centralized Bids and Awards Committee committed grave abuse of discretion when they disqualified AllCard from the bidding despite presenting the lowest bid at PHP 176.8 million, which was below the PHP 240.12 million approved budget for the licenses. AllCard also alleged that the DOTr issued the award to Banner even though the period to file a protest was not yet through.

“This case, unfortunately, reeks with unfairness or injustice to the petitioner who was clearly deprived of its right to due process and deserving judicial intervention,” wrote Judge Hipolito.

The LTO, on the other hand, issued a statement, saying that the decision was a setback but respects the Court’s decision.

“Certainly, this is a major setback on our goal of addressing the backlog on the physical driver’s license which we target to complete by September this year.  The backlog is around 1.7 million as of this month and mounting everyday considering the number of applications we are receiving for new, and the renewal of driver’s licenses on a daily basis.”

Disqualified due to bad performance

In an earlier statement, the DOTr, through Usec. De Leon said the procurement process followed the law as specified in the Republic Act 9184 or the Procurement Law. The transport official further explained that the bidding not only requires the financial capabilities of the bidder but the provision of the specified needs under the contract’s terms of reference as well.

“We’re not only looking at the financial bid but also the capability of the supplier to deliver within the definition of the terms, this is the reason why Allcard was disqualified,” said De Leon.