NBI not discounting sabotage as cause of MRT 3 train decoupling

Passengers of MRT 3 go hiking along the tracks after one of the cars got detached along the
northbound section between Ayala and Buendia stations in Makati City, disrupting their trip. One of them, Sinag de Jesus, shared
this photo with the Inquirer.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) would now look further into human intervention as the possible cause of the decoupling of a Metro Rail Transit-3 train two weeks ago, as it ruled out on Wednesday that the train suffered from mechanical and electrical failures.

Based on initial findings, Joel Tovera, head of the NBI Special Action Unit, said that they did not find any technical or mechanical defect on the questioned train’s coupler assembly.

“We’re not discounting the possibility that it’s really sabotage, especially that technically, the mechanical and electrical portion of coupler assembly is not defective,” he told reporters.

To fully rule out these possibilities though, he noted that they would have to correlate it with the evaluation of the forensic experts on the readings of the Messma card, or the train’s black box, and the statements provided by the persons of interest in the incident.

Though the card is still missing, Michael Capati, the MRT 3 director for operations, said that they could still get the information they need since the all three cards on the train work on an interloop mechanism.

For security reasons, Tovera said that they couldn’t name yet the persons of interest.

Meanwhile, the MRT 3 management said the train driver had been reassigned for now pending the results of the NBI investigation. /atm