MRT woes traced to corruption, says lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines - Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco yesterday accused Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II of using the Metro Railway Transit (MRT) system as a milking cow of the ruling Liberal Party during his stint as secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Tiangco, interim president of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), said Roxas cancelled almost all transport-related contracts of the government to accommodate favored suppliers of the administration.

He said the MRT-3 was never in DOTC’s priority list and was in fact treated as a “cash cow” of some members of the Liberal Party.

“The problems of MRT-3 are rooted in the corruption scandal involving members of the ruling Liberal Party who Secretary Roxas is protecting. I am glad that Mr. Robert Sobrepeña came out in the open to expose the real story behind the string of corruption surrounding the MRT-3,” Tiangco said.

Tiangco noted Sobrepeña, chairman of Fil-Estate, told a Senate hearing the termination of the Sumitomo maintenance contract was a key factor in the commuters’ daily ordeal.

He said Sumitomo’s contract was set to expire on Oct. 17, 2012 or a day before current Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya took over the DOTC.

“It was during Roxas’ term as DOTC secretary that the contract for Sumitomo Corp. to maintain the trains was not renewed, and it was also during Roxas’ term that an alleged extortion attempt from a Czech firm interested in supplying additional trains happened,” Tiangco said.

Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar alleged then MRT general manager Al Vitangcol tried to extort $30 million from the Inekon Group so that the company would bag the contract to supply the trains.

Rychtar identified Wilson de Vera, a member of the Liberal Party and who ran as mayor in Calasiao, Pangasinan in 2013, as the one who asked for the $30 million on behalf of Vitangcol. De Vera allegedly was also behind the MRT bidding.

Tiangco described the MRT-3 as virtually having become LP’s “cash cow” with DOTC bigwigs dominating the train service company.

He said until now, the Liberal Party and its allies are covering up the scandal fearing it could implicate ranking party leaders and government officials.

The screw-ups in MRT, Tiangco said, have become a multi-dimensional issue from the $30-million extortion, awarding of billion-peso contracts without bidding, questionable fare subsidy reports, and of late, the unused P4.5-billion MRT fund for expansion that was diverted to the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program.