House to invite Czech envoy

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives will again invite Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar to shed light on his allegations that Metro Rail Transit general manager Al Vitangcol tried to extort $30 million from a Czech firm interested in supplying 48 new MRT trains.

Vitangcol has denied Rychtar’s accusations and challenged him to shed his diplomatic immunity and face him in court.

“Yes, we will invite the ambassador again,” Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez, chairman of the House committee on good government and public accountability, said yesterday.

Rodriguez said his panel would set its next hearing on the alleged shakedown after Congress, which is on Lenten break, reconvenes on May 5.

In a television interview, Rychtar expressed willingness to attend the House inquiry and confront Vitangcol.

The ambassador failed to show up during the committee hearing last Feb. 25, informing the panel that he was vacationing abroad.

Instead, he sent Rodriguez a letter and furnished him with copies of his unsigned statement and a signed affidavit by Josef Husek, chairman and chief executive officer of Inekon Group, the Czech firm interested in supplying MRT trains.

He said his statement and Husek’s affidavit had been given to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). Rodriguez had told reporters that Rychtar’s unsigned statement was worthless unless he affirms or repeats its contents before the committee.

In his letter, Rychtar said he was confirming “that an extortion attempt took place in July 2012 followed by other suspicious circumstances, which led to a questionable bidding process in March 2013.” “I insist that the President’s family members are not involved and implicated, instead the responsibility lies with some government officials and private persons associated with them,” he said.

The ambassador narrated how the alleged shakedown took place on July 9, 2012 when he, Vitangcol, Husek, another Inekon executive named Haloun, a certain Boyet Maralit, Wilson de Vera and a certain M. de la Cruz had dinner at a Makati restaurant.

After the dinner, Rychtar said Maralit “came to me informing that Mr. Vitangcol wants to continue the discussion about the procedures of the deal.” “I offered that they can continue the talks in my residence. Mr. Vitangcol did not participate in this meeting. I cannot remember if Mr. De la Cruz also left or was present with the others, since it happened a year and a half ago,” he said.

“I was not part of the discussion that was held between Mr. Husek on one side and Mr. De Vera on the other side. I think all of us considered him to be an envoy of Mr. Vitangcol since he behaved like that at an official dinner. He went straight to the point of suggesting the payment from Inekon to secure the deal... I think everybody was surprised with this suggestion of Mr. De Vera, which was $30 million,” the ambassador said in his unsigned statement.

He said Husek tried to resist the extortion attempt, telling De Vera that $3 million was the cost of one MRT coach, and that if they paid $30 million, “the price of their product would have to rise up significantly.”

“Mr. De Vera left the house during the meeting at least two times to call somebody from his mobile phone. After one of the calls, he came back to the hall. He informed us that Mr. Vitangcol said that the price of one coach cannot exceed $3 million...Then he asked for at least $2.5 million, but even that was refused by Mr. Husek,” Rychtar said. Husek corroborated the Czech ambassador’s story in his affidavit, which he said was prepared with the assistance of Inekon Group’s “outside counsel” in Prague.

Two other congressmen – Rodolfo Albano III of Isabela and Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Dasmarias City in Cavite – asked the public to give Vitangcol the benefit of the doubt.

Albano said the accusations against Vitangcol “cannot stand in court.”

He said Vitangcol’s accusers stated in their signed and unsigned complaints that the MRT chief was not present in the meeting in the ambassador’s residence, where some people, who Rychtar and Husek assumed were acting for Vitangcol, supposedly demanded $30 million from Husek.

“Assuming the alleged extortion act really took place, how can an investigator or a judge link Vitangcol to it? How can he be punished based on the assumption of Mr. Rychtar and Mr. Husek?” Albano asked.

The lawmaker suggested that the NBI question the people Rychtar and Husek met with in the ambassador’s residence.

Barzaga said the Department of Transportation and Communications has cleared Vitangcol due to the failure of his accusers to show up in an administrative inquiry.