At the end of the day…

Two of the most controversial Cabinet officials of President Benigno “Noy”Aquino III attended and answered forthrightly nagging questions fielded to them during our breakfast forum last week. Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Sec. Florencio “Butch” Abad and Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Sec.Joseph Emilio “Jun” Abaya joined our Kapihan sa Manila Bay last Wednesday at the Luneta Hotel.

Abad and Abaya are also known stalwarts of President Aquino’s Liberal Party (LP). Abaya is, in fact, the acting LP president. They are both controversial – and influential if I may add – because they are the respective heads of departments embroiled in various national policy issues, some of which reached all the way to the Supreme Court (SC).

We dwelt with Abad in my column last Friday. Let me now give this space today to Abaya who is “junior” to Abad in terms of joining the Aquino Cabinet. Abaya took over the DOTC only last August, 2012.

Abaya was then on his third and last term as Cavite congressman when President Aquino appointed him as DOTC secretary. He took over the post vacated by Secretary Mar Roxas II who was moved to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) following the death of Secretary Jesse Robredo. Roxas went on leave as LP president and turned over the party helm to Abaya.

Thus, Abaya’s stint at the DOTC started inauspiciously despite his very good credentials from his being an Annapolis Naval Academy graduate to post-degree courses he completed. But the most mentioned part of his long resume is his having once served as junior military aide-de-camp of P-Noy’s late mother, former President Corazon Aquino in her last two years in office ending in June, 1992.

So I got to know Abaya during those days when we covered Malacañang Palace. The last time we saw each other was when he was still in his first term as Cavite congressman when he accompanied Abad and several LP lawmakers at the Palace.

At that time, there was a headcount being made by the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of its allies in Congress. The favorite joke of LP congressmen during those days was they can ride all together in just one Beetle.

Fast forward. Abaya now tells me LP has more than one hundred congressmen in complete control of the majority at the House of Representatives led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte. Senate president Franklin Drilon who is LP’s vice chairman leads the Upper Chamber with fellow re-electionist LP senators Teofisto Guingona Jr. and Ralph Recto. The fourth LP at the Senate is neophyte Senator Bam Aquino, P-Noy’s first cousin.

This is why perhaps most, if not all of Abaya’s prevailing woes and problems at the DOTC are politically colored, to say the least.

According to Abaya, the DOTC has a total of 18 attached agencies and many of them are keeping him in media, albeit more in a bad light.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay, Abad could only commiserate with his fellow Cabinet official whose woes he said can be traced to heading a department that has regulatory bodies under it. Abaya could not agree more. Thus, every pending contract or project of the DOTC that was asked about during the open forum was either in various courts here in the country, or pending at arbitration tribunals abroad.

Just a rundown of these projects and contracts that were asked from the DOTC secretary:

– Abaya disclosed the agency is now speaking with officials from the Embassy of the Netherlands to help resolve the delay in the delivery of license car plates at the Land Transportation Office (LTO). In July, the Commission on Audit (COA) ordered to stop the LTO’s license plate standardization deal with Dutch-Filipino consortium PPI-JKG Philippines, Inc.

– DOTC is working to decongest the runway of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) as part of efforts to make further improvements at the country’s main international gateway. British air traffic management expert NATS Services Ltd. was contracted by the DOTC for its NAIA Runway Optimization Project. Under the 12-month contract, NATS is tasked to increase the hourly air traffic movements to 60 from 40, by determining the optimal configuration for the airport’s intersecting runways.

– DOTC has received the pre-feasibility study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the location of the country’s new international airport. Abaya revealed the study which considered five locations, has narrowed down the options to two: Sangley Point in Cavite and Central Manila Bay.

– The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) is inviting interested bidders for the procurement of 120 brand new Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) for the LRT Line 1. The procurement of LRVs for LRT Line 1 from Roosevelt in Quezon City up to Baclaran in Parañaque City would be funded through a loan extended also by JICA. Thus, bidding will be exclusive to Japanese contractors only.

– They are discussing with the contractor of escalators and elevators to repair those at the Metro Rail Transit (MRT)-3 project.

– The Philippine National Railways (PNR) will be able launch soon its South Rail project before the end of this year.

The other DOTC agencies that can complete the alphabet soup under Abaya’s direct supervision are, namely, the Coast Guard, CAAP, MARINA, PPA, CIAC, OTS, CAB, MIAA, OTS, OTC and OMMA.

Actually, Abaya became the third DOTC secretary in five years of the Aquino administration. Former secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus was the first to serve in the Cabinet in June, 2010 but quit one year after.

The resignation of De Jesus coincided with the lapse of the one-year ban against losing candidates being appointed to executive posts. Roxas was thus named to the DOTC one year after he ran but lost the vice presidential race to former Makati City mayor Jejomar Binay.

Despite these problematic agencies at the DOTC, Abaya told us he views them as “challenges” he must face – whether politics-related or not. Sounding like P-Noy, Abaya kept saying “at the end of the day” during the two-hour forum that I lost count. Abaya reassured us many of these projects they started at the DOTC would continue beyond the next presidency.