Don’t prejudge MRT case, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay told

Liberal Party lawmakers on Wednesday asked Senators Grace Poe and Nancy Binay to stop “prejudging” the Office of Ombudsman on the issue of the allegedly irregular Metro Rail Transit (MRT) maintenance contract, and injecting politics into the case.

They said the senators, one of whom is a prospective or aspiring presidential candidate and the other the daughter of one, had no basis to question the Ombudsman’s decision not to indict Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, the acting president of the ruling LP.

“Some personalities are quick to prejudge the Ombudsman when in fact its action of filing a case is a laudable first step to clear all allegations surrounding the MRT-3 case,” said Quirino Rep. Dakila Cua.

“I respect Sen. Grace Poe and Sen. Nancy Binay but hearing them prejudge the Ombudsman’s seriousness in pursuing the case is not good at all,” he said of the two senators.

Poe and Binay issued separate statements on Sunday criticizing the Ombudsman’s resolution on the $11.5-million maintenance contract between the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) and Philippine Trans Rail Management and Services Corp. (PH Trams).

The Ombudsman had ordered the indictment for graft of former MRT general manager Al Vitangcol and five incorporators of PH Trams, which was awarded the maintenance contract for the MRT in October 2012 without any public bidding.

The graft complaint against Abaya was dismissed for lack of probable cause.

“I call on the two good members of the Senate to wait for the completion of the process before they give a verdict,” Cua said.

“We all want to finally find out what really happened. Now that the Ombudsman has a case, we will soon find out. Now is not the time to muddle the case with political propaganda and politically colored allegations and insinuations,” he said.

Quezon City Rep. Alfredo Vargas III, a member of the House transportation committee, said the indictment only meant there was probable cause to charge only Vitangcol and the five others “for now.”–DJ Yap