Jarius Bondoc: The truth about MRT-3 is out. The 560,000 daily passengers may not grasp the complexities of rail upkeep, but know that they risk lives and limbs with every ride. For the MRT-3 is a disaster waiting to happen. As amply reported (Gotcha, 28 May 2014), trains could ignite, collide, or derail and drop onto cars and pedestrians below the elevated tracks any time. Just that, passengers have no choice but to take the rickety train, for it’s the only rapid mass transport along traffic-jammed EDSA, Metro Manila’s main artery. MRT-3 is not being maintained, but serves simply as a milking cow of DOTC officials. In Aug. 2012, Abaya, Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla, and then-MRT-3 general manager Al S. Vitangcol awarded a $1.15-million-a-month maintenance contract to the joint venture of PH Trams and CommBuilders Transport (CB&T). The chairman of PH Trams was Marlo dela Cruz. One of five other incorporator-directors was Arturo V. Soriano, Vitangcol’s uncle-in-law. Three others were Wilson de Vera, Manolo Maralit, and his wife. In Apr. 2013 Czech ambassador Josef Rychtar exposed Vitangcol, dela Cruz, de Vera, and Maralit to have attempted to extort $30 million from Czech train maker Inekon Corp., MRT-3’s original supplier. Inekon chairman Josef Husek corroborated the event of July 2012. The sixth PH Trams incorporator Director was Federico Remo, then executive vice president of the government-owned Philippine Export-Import Guaranty Corp. No public bidding, only closed-door negotiations were held then under the guise of emergency contracting. PH Trams was only two months old, with no experience in railway maintenance. Yet its contract lasted for ten months, for a total take of P517.5 million, 848 times its meager capital of P625,000. When PH Trams’ controversial contract was about to end in July 2013, DOTC-MRT-3 simulated another “bidding.” This time, Global and APT won. In official records, Global’s and the joint venture’s “authorized representative” is again dela Cruz. The yearlong contract is again $1.15 million a month. Global reportedly is co-owned by a high official of the Philippine National Railways. Signing the Global-APT contract award were Abaya, Lotilla, and Light Rail Transit Corp. general manager Honorio Chaneco. A former classmate of Abaya, Chaneco was then MRT-3 acting GM, in lieu of Vitangcol, on leave while under investigation for the $30-million extortion. Vitangcol was sacked on May 26, 2014, upon exposure in this column for illegally contracting a half-billion-peso deal with his uncle-in-law. Chaneco has taken over MRT-3 full-time, while still running LRT-1 and LRT-2. APT is the long-time maintenance contractor of LRT-1, and CB&T of LRT-2. Why did both firms have to partner with dela Cruz to get into MRT-3? philstar/opinion/2014/08/15/1357770/mrt-3-crash-abaya-blaming-train-drivers-not-compadre-contractor
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:16:09 +0000