The 540,000 daily riders and his own family know. Barefaced lies were all that P-Noy said about the MRT-3 in his last State of the Nation. He was covering up for his corrupt Liberal Party mates who are milking the commuter railway dry. “Ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw,” the Tagalogs say, “The liar is brother to the thief.”
Fibbed P-Noy: “We have partners from the private sector in (MRT-3)... This partner is supposed to be in charge of maintenance. In 2008 there should have been a general overhaul, but on DOTC inspection, only token cosmetic changes were undertaken. This guaranteed the breakdown of trains... They allowed the situation to deteriorate to the point where, at very short notice, they just passed the job of improving MRT-3 onto us.
“When we moved to undertake improvements, suddenly they wanted to take back the maintenance. However, their proposal was more expensive. This would add expenses and aggravation for our people...
“Sec. Joseph Abaya: you, I, and the population of Metro Manila are not pleased with what is happening. We are taking steps to buy out the MRTC. Once this is fixed, the state will be the sole decision maker.
“We are already implementing immediate maintenance. Next month we can expect the delivery of the prototype for new coaches. The process to obtain new rails is underway, together with upgrading of the signaling and automatic fare collecting systems. The power supply will be upgraded before end-2016. Twelve escalators will be fixed before yearend, while procurement for 34 more escalators and 32 elevators is ongoing.”
* * *
Now the facts, from official records of DOTC, SEC, and Ombudsman:
• Presidential appointees to the DBP and LBP control ten of 15 board seats in MRTC, MRT-3’s private owner-builder. That’s been so since 2009, when the state banks bought MRTC’s economic rights — a deal the Senate probed but the Sandiganbayan cleared in 2014. MRTC used to hire the maintenance firm, with DOTC assent. P-Noy’s men in DBP-LBP took over MRTC in July 2010. There was no maintenance problem by Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. then, they stated in several letters to him in 2012. On file is the yearlong overhaul in 2008, no bogus works.
• Sumitomo’s ten-year upkeep expired July 2010. DOTC extended it four times, till Oct. 2012. Suddenly then-MRT-3 chief Al S. Vitangcol, quoting then-DOTC Sec. and LP president Mar Roxas, said they wanted Sumitomo out. DBP-LBP reps in MRTC protested, but Vitangcol gave them no choice, for DOTC wouldn’t pay the Japanese anymore.
• With Sumitomo leaving in one week, Vitangcol et al declared an emergency, to justify a negotiated substitute. From behind closed doors he and other Roxas men – Usecs. Ildefonso Patdu, Rene Limcaoco and Jose Lotilla, and LRTA head Honorito Chaneco — hired PH Trams. The firm was only two months old, undercapitalized at P625,000, with no experience in railways. Yet they paid it $1.15 million a month for ten months, totaling P535.5 million – 857 times its meager capital. Signing the Oct. 20, 2012 contract were Vitangcol, Lotilla, and new DOTC Sec. Abaya, soon to become LP acting president.
• PH Trams’ chairman is Marlo dela Cruz. Other incorporator-directors are Wilson de Vera, Federico Remo, Manolo Maralit, and Arturo Soriano. All were in conflict of interest. Dela Cruz, whom Roxas admits is a friend, was the top LP fundraiser in Pangasinan; de Vera had run but lost in 2010 for LP mayor of Calasiao, Pangasinan. Remo was a high exec of an agency under the finance department, to which the DBP-LBP report. Maralit is related by affinity to MRTC’s DBP-appointed chair. Soriano is Vitangcol’s uncle-in-law.
• Dela Cruz, de Vera, Maralit, and Vitangcol were linked to the July 2012 attempted extortion of $30 million from Inekon Corp., the Czech supplier of MRT-3 coaches in 2000. The Czech ambassador swore in April 2013 that Vitangcol and de Vera demanded the amount if Inekon was to resupply 54 new coaches. Allegedly Vitangcol also wanted Inekon to buy into a company of his uncle, for it to bag the maintenance. P-Noy’s family knows this. For, when the story broke, PR operators tried to divert the flak to them, so they had to get to the bottom of the issue; P-Noy can ask them.
• On record, Sumitomo turned over to PH Trams all 73 original Inekon coaches: 72 operational and one busted. Contract partner CB&T would later accuse PH Trams of not stockpiling on necessary spare parts, but only collecting its share of the monthly $1.15 million. MRT-3’s five components – trains, tracks, signaling system, power supply, and stations – began to deteriorate. Major breakdowns occurred, from three per year under Sumitomo to three per week under PH Trams. Serious accidents began.
• When the extortion made PH Trams hot potato, DOTC dropped it in August 2013 for newly revived Global Epcom. In conflict of interest the new principal is a high official of Philippine National Railways. Marlo dela Cruz is still in, as “authorized representative.” More accidents and breakdowns occurred, to the injury and inconvenience of passengers.
• Based on the construction and supply specs, there should be a total overhaul of MRT-3 in 2014-2015. No such thing is happening. This is despite DOTC getting P5.2-billion budget for it for the two years, and hiking fares by 70 percent. Of the 72 running coaches turned over by Sumitomo, only 42 are usable for 14 trains, at three coaches per train. Since six to eight coaches are under repair everyday, only 11 three-coach trains are on track. The trains have to slow down along many stretches of rails that have crumbled from disrepair.
• Last June DOTC broke up the MRT-3 maintenance into seven contractors. Instead of being blacklisted for poor service, Global Epcom, with Marlo dela Cruz as rep, bagged the easiest job of all, cleaning up the stations, but for the highest contract, P23.35 million a month.
• In his first SONA in 2010 P-Noy denounced the past admin’s sleazy plan to buy out MRTC from the minority original owners. But he is now to waste P54 billion for the very same buyout. For what, more commissions for his LP?
* * *
Falsity in one, falsity in all? Experts are sure to see lies in P-Noy’s other SONA items. Like, in praising Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala, he glossed over many fiascos. That Cabinet man whom he calls “problem solver” failed in his promise to make the country self-sufficient in rice by 2013. Instead, rice retail prices surged in June of 2013 and 2014, ironically right after the dry-season harvests. Onion, garlic, ginger, and vegetable prices soared too, as Alcala’s men colluded with smugglers and cartelists. P-Noy covered up for that LP officer too.
“There are some who say I wear blinders, when it comes to those who have long been my companions on the Straight Path,” P-Noy said in the last SONA. “Am I the one with blinders? Or is it those who see only the bad things?”
P-Noy is an apt case study for Philip Zimbardo’s “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding Why Good People Turn Bad.” From his earlier controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo already saw persons turning into any of three types when put in a bad setting: the one who becomes bad, the one who abets bad by passivity, and the one who fights the bad. P-Noy clearly is one of the first two. One need not be superhuman or a mighty President to be the third. He must have conscience and courage.
* * *
Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).
Gotcha archives on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarius-Bondoc/1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/JariusBondoc/GOTCHA
E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com.