After more than six years of serving as Central Visayas Director of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB-7), Ahmed Cuizon will already be vacating his post on Monday and transfer to their Central Luzon office.
Cuizon will replace LTFRB-3 Director Glenn Zaragoza, who is already retiring from government service.
Region 3 consists of the provinces of Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales while the central office of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is also located at the Clark Freeport in Pampanga.
Retired Air Force Colonel Eduardo Montealto Jr., who now heads the LTFRB office in Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9), will takeover the post that Cuizon will vacate starting on Monday.
The reshuffling of LTFRB directors resulted from an order which transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade signed on August 7 for the reassignment of six of his directors starting on August 13.
Cuizon told Cebu Daily News that he is bracing for more challenges in his new post.
“The challenge now is bigger because unlike in Region 7 where we only have four provinces here, Region 3 has 7 provinces and some of these places are very high profile,” he said.
He is also preparing himself to fill the vacancy that director Zaragoza will leave behind.
“Atty. Zaragoza, among us in LTFRB, is an institution by himself alone. He is very well respected, well-revered. To be replacing him in this region is daunting. Of all people, I was chosen to assume the post that he left. I am more than honored,” Cuizon said.
Cuizon said that since he will not be bringing any of his LTFRB-7 personnel to his new post, he will also have to learn to work with Zaragoza’s existing personnel.
Montealto is a native of Davao City and was recently appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte after he retired from the Philippine Air Force last year.
Cuizon is also confident that he will be leaving LTFRB-7 in good hands with Montelato’s assumption.
“He (Montelato) is okay. I met him. He is very amiable. Approachable kaayo na siya sa mga stakeholders. It is very important that we keep constant dialogue with our stakeholders so that we will know their problems and we can also communicate to them the plans of the national government especially on the public utility vehicle modernization,” Cuizon said.
Cuizon said he is also certain that Montelato will continue his plans to already acquire a 1, 700 square meter property for the construction of a permanent office and impounding area for LTFRB-7.
The two projects have an estimated value of P260 million.
Cuizon, who was first assigned as LTFRB-7 director on December 2010, temporarily vacated his post to assume as assistant general manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) in 2014.
He was reinstated as LTFRB-7 director on March 2016 and at the same time held the position of acting director of LTFRB-8 (Eastern Visayas) from December 2016 to August 2017.