Poe rejects Abaya story on MRT sabotage

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Grace Poe rejected the claims made by the country’s transport officials that the latest major breakdown of the Metro Rail Transit 3 commuter train system was a result of sabotage.

Poe said Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and MRT general manager Roman Buenafe cannot just claim there was sabotage of the MRT 3 last Friday and take no responsibility for the breakdown.

“If it was really sabotaged then isn’t it their responsibility to ensure that they have a good security system there?” Poe asked.

Poe said transport officials should be on top of the situation at all times when it comes to the operation of the MRT 3 and so no such sabotage should happen at all.

“They cannot use sabotage as an excuse. Why weren’t you able to prevent this? What is your problem?” she said.

An “emergency hearing” has been set by Poe as chairperson of the Senate public services sub-committee next Monday to go over the various issues surrounding the MRT 3.

Poe said she expects Abaya and the other transport officials to attend the hearing and explain what is happening with the MRT 3.

Poe said the hearing on Monday would focus on the maintenance contract recently entered into by the DOTC with a Korean-Filipino joint venture.

She said the details of the contract must be made public in order to ensure that everything is aboveboard.

There should be an explanation why no public bidding was conducted for the contract and a negotiated contract was done in its place, Poe said.

According to Poe, the problems with the maintenance of MRT 3 in the past years should no longer exist with the latest contract.