EDITORIAL – What about the other complaint?

With no end to glitches in the Metro Rail Transit 3, graft charges were filed before the Sandiganbayan yesterday against former MRT general manager Al Vitangcol III, his uncle-in-law and other executives of a company that bagged a multimillion-dollar maintenance contract without public bidding for the railway service.

While the indictment is a positive development, it is unclear why the charge is not for plunder despite the huge amount involved. The official who signed the contract for $1.15 million a month from 2012 to 2013, Transport and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, was also spared. The Office of the Ombudsman apparently bought Abaya’s excuse that he had been in office only two days when he signed the contract. So who was responsible for final approval of the deal? Abaya’s predecessor as transport secretary, Mar Roxas, was also not taken to task for the questionable contract.

The indictment raises questions on the fate of another accusation hurled against Vitangcol before Abaya was appointed transport chief: the alleged attempt to shake down a Czech company for $30 million in exchange for a contract to supply MRT trains. When the Czechs balked, the amount was allegedly whittled down to $2.5 million. But the Czechs still refused, and their ambassador at the time openly accused Vitangcol of involvement in the alleged extortion.

Executives of Czech firm Inekon submitted a formal complaint to the National Bureau of Investigation, with the former ambassador submitting his own signed statement. The NBI submitted its recommendations to the Department of Justice, which reportedly forwarded the findings to Malacañang.

What has happened to this case? It could be linked to the graft case Vitangcol and executives of PH Trams are now facing in connection with the MRT maintenance deal. Will the Office of the Ombudsman initiate its own probe? Why not? The nation deserves to know the truth about the purported shakedown, with the same speed that prosecutors move when it involves opponents of the administration.