5 RTA men named by Oclarit under probe over Gusa mishap

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .

CITY hall’s legal office has included five others in the Roads and Traffic Administration in its investigation into the June road accident that killed government engineer Ifour Manduro in Gusa.

City administrator Teodoro Sabuga-a on Tuesday confirmed that acting city legal officer Raymond Villablanca has expanded the investigation because of information provided by RTA chief Nonito Oclarit.

Engr. Oclarit was ordered late last month to explain why the RTA did not act on the vehicular traffic flow problem on a section of the highway in Gusa caused by a crane truck that bogged down in the middle of the road for several days.

Engr. Manduro was killed after his driven pick-up truck crashed into the stalled truck after midnight June 22.

“Sa tubag ni Oclarit nga iyang gipadala kanako, duna may mga ngalan sa RTA personnel nga iyang gisangpit didto. Ato sab to silang gipadalhan sa memorandum ug atong gipa-explain,” said Sabuga-a without identifying the RTA employees.

But Sabuga-a said one of the employees serves as a radio operator who was blamed by Oclarit for allegedly failing to relay information about the stalled crane truck to him.

The crane truck is owned by the Makati Development Corp..

Sabuga-a said he was expecting Villablanca to submit his findings and recommendations either tomorrow or next week.

He said Villablanca’s recommendations would serve as Mayor Oscar Moreno’s decision on what to do with Oclarit and the engineer’s five subordinates in the RTA. or whether to hold them administratively liable or not.

Oclarit earlier said the problem caused by the stalled crane truck was “overlooked” by  the RTA because they were busy, and because he was not informed about it until after the fatal accident.