Group hits government inaction on LRTA mess

MANILA, Philippines - Insisting that the Light Rail Transit Authority entered into an allegedly anomalous contract, a consumer group that recently filed graft charges against LRTA officials before the Office of the Ombusdsman accused the government of not acting on its complaint.

“Do people need to be injured again before we see any positive government action?” asked National Coalition of Filipino Consumers (NCFC) spokesperson Oliver San Antonio on Monday.

He claimed that Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and LRTA officials Honorito Chaneco and Jose Jobel Belarmino appeared bent on awarding the maintenance contract for LRT Line 2 to a firm that was allegedly found by DOTC engineers to have submitted technically incompatible specifications and had merely “cut and paste” the specifications for the maintenance contract for the Metro Rail Transit.

The LRTA management has denied accusations that the contract was anomalous and that there were irregularities in the bidding process that was on by Busan-EDC joint venture.

The NCFC said the Office of the Ombudsman has given due course to its complaint and directed the respondents to answer the charges.

 “We need swift and concrete government action. The DOTC Secretary and the President need to directly intervene to clean this bidding mess up, and they should do it now without any further delay,” San Antonio said.