Erice: UNA tirade vs Roxas a ‘big joke’
Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—A Liberal Party stalwart on Friday chided United Nationalist Alliance spokesperson Toby Tiangco for dragging Interior Secretary Mar Roxas into the MRT issue.
‘‘Representative Tiangco should be a comedian for his latest spiel on Secretary Roxas. During his short stint at the DOTC (Department of Transportation and Communications), Secretary Roxas was able to institute reforms to precisely fix the problems left behind by MRTC (MRT Corp.) led by Robert Sobrepeña and Sumitomo Corp.,” Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice said.
‘‘If Bob Sobrepeña is the best UNA (United Nationalist Alliance) can do, then they are scraping the bottom of the bottom of the barrel. Sobrepeña’s track record for scams and failed investments that victimized hundreds of thousands of ordinary Filipinos speaks for itself,” Erice added.
The Sobrepeña family headed the Fil-Estate group and the failed College Assurance Plan (CAP), whose default on tuition fee payments of thousands of CAP policyholders kicked off a crisis in the educational plan sector that affected hundreds of thousands of students, Erice said in a statement.
The Fil-Estate group also has an ongoing legal tussle with the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) over unpaid rent amounting to billions of pesos. Sobrepeña was issued an arrest warrant a few months ago over the case.
UNA poster boy
‘‘To make Sobrepeña the poster boy for UNA’s version of ‘Daang Matuwid’ is a big joke. Unfortunately it is a bad joke on the Filipino people. They are making us look like fools and stupid,” the Caloocan congressman said.
Erice said it was clear that UNA is trying to shift public attention to Roxas and the LP after the latest Pulse Asia survey showed Roxas gaining 6 to 10 percentage points while the UNA standard bearer, Vice President Jejomar Binay, plunged by 10 percentage points from 41 percent to 31 percent.
Binay is being hounded by allegations that the P2.8-billion 11-storey Makati City Hall parking building the construction of which started while he was still Makati City Mayor was overpriced and that biddings for contracts for Makati city projects were rigged to favor contractors identified with Binay.
According to Erice, Roxas left DOTC in August 2012.
‘‘No rail-related projects were awarded during his stint. And under Secretary Joseph Abaya, the MRT 3 contract underwent strict vetting,” he said.
‘‘What UNA conveniently omitted in its supposed quest for truth on the MRT issue is the fact that Sumitomo failed to meet the obligations of its contract with the government. It was a botched work and they are now trying to hide their shortcomings,” he added.
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