Abaya mum on ‘family trip’ to Japan

MANILA, Philippines - Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya is mum over his recent official trip to Japan that had reportedly turned into a virtual family vacation.

Abaya attended an APEC ministerial meeting on transportation from Sept. 4 to 6, with the 10-member delegation supposedly dominated by members of his family, including his parents.

In his “Demand and Supply” column in The STAR titled “Let’s keep pressure up!,” Boo Chanco wrote that lawyer Michael Angelo Abaya, Abaya’s father and former congressman Plaridel Madarang Abaya, his mother Consuelo Aguinaldo Abaya, his brother Paul Plaridel Abaya Jr., and cousin Emilio Aguinaldo Pulido joined the trip to Tokyo.

Abaya did not answer or return calls by The STAR seeking his comment on the issue.

Chanco said he got the information from a concerned citizen and avid reader of his column who shared his frustration over the DOTC’s string of failures in bidding out and rolling out much awaited big-ticket transportation infrastructure projects.

Abaya announced at the Philippine Economic Briefing 2013 the DOTC’s decision on Monday that the department would conduct next year a bidding for the P60-billion Light Rail Transit south extension into Cavite after a failed bidding last month.