Aquino backs Abaya amid mess at MRT

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

DAVAO CITY—Yes, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya is keeping his job.

This was confirmed by President Benigno Aquino III himself as he ignored politicians led by Sen. Grace Poe calling for Abaya’s head for supposedly failing to resolve Metro Manila’s miserable traffic.

“Yes!” the President said emphatically, when he was asked if Abaya, who is also the secretary general of the ruling Liberal Party, would remain as the head of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

In defending Abaya, Mr. Aquino said that the “instant issue” raised by Poe against Abaya was the aging Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT 3) system and the alleged absence of a maintenance contractor.

But the South Korean company, Busan Transportation Corp., will be taking over the MRT 3’s maintenance after the monthlong extension of the current maintenance provider, the President disclosed.

“So, it is not right (to say) that there is no maintenance. Secretary Abaya insists there was never a moment when the MRT 3 did not have a maintenance provider,” he said.

Poe’s motives?

Asked if this had to do with politics, especially since Poe is running for President in 2016, Mr. Aquino paused and frowned.

He then said it would be better to ask Poe what her motivations were as he was not her spokesperson.

The President stressed that Busan Transport will maintain the MRT 3 for three years and rehabilitate and overhaul 43 light rail vehicles (coaches). The company will also be installing a completely new signaling system and replace the obsolete one, he added.

Mr. Aquino castigated one newspaper which headlined a story that the government had lost the contract with Busan Transport “when actually the contract signing was on the same day.”

“So how is that? Instead of the headline saying [the company was] ‘walking away’ [from the contract), it should have said ‘walking to,’” he said.

Abaya’s ‘sins’

In demanding Abaya’s dismissal, Poe and other politicians said he had failed to address the major problems besetting the MRT 3, including the frequent breakdowns and the inadequacies of its coaches and station facilities.

The aging train system can no longer cope with the increasing number of commuters, with long queues in MRT 3 stations becoming the norm rather than the exception.

READ: Jail Abaya over MRT-LRT mess, says militant group

On Friday, the militant group Bayan’s secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. stated five reasons why he thinks Abaya should be removed.

He said Abaya had failed to address the “long outstanding issues of the MRT,” with the train system deteriorating under his watch; he allegedly implemented an illegal fare hike for the MRT and LRT on Jan. 4, 2015; he allegedly entered into an anomalous and disadvantageous privatization contract involving LRT 1 and its Cavite extension line; he reportedly wanted to change the location of a planned common terminal for the MRT from the SM Annex to Trinoma “where it would be impossible for the three train lines to actually connect, all because [the DOTC] wants to favor certain private interests”; and Abaya and other DOTC officials were allegedly involved in an anomalous PH Trams maintenance contract for the MRT 3.

Reyes said Abaya had signed the PH Trams contract but only former MRT 3 general manager Al Vitangcol had been charged by the Office of the Ombudsman.

READ: Vitangcol on MRT 3 mess:  I’m sacrificial lamb but Abaya is just as liable

‘Runaway coffin’

Bayan Muna Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Isagani Zarate said Mr. Aquino should not wait for the MRT 3 to become a “runaway coffin” before he sacks Abaya.

Despite the illegal fare hike at the start of 2015, the MRT 3 further deteriorated under Abaya’s watch, with almost daily rail problems and glitches, Colmenares said.

“From worse to worst; from better to bitter, the MRT is now emblematic of the failing governance of the exiting Aquino administration,” Zarate said.

In Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental province, Poe on Friday reiterated her call for Abaya to be dismissed because of, among other reasons, his failure to fix the MRT 3.

Speaking to reporters here, Poe, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on public transportation, noted that the MRT 3 broke down twice yesterday.

“These incidents only show the failure to provide good maintenance services that ensure the safety of the trains,” she explained.

“He (Abaya) has failed to do his job, so he is not fit to remain in his post … . As a matter of principle, the public should not be made to suffer for a Cabinet official’s failure to fulfill his duties,” she said.

Poe said Abaya had failed to prove himself worthy of the job, as “the state of MRT services and the many other agencies under the DOTC have not changed.”

Apart from the MRT 3, she also blamed Abaya for the “tanim-bala (bullet-planting) scam” and the failure to deliver vehicle license plates.

Poe said she could not wait for Abaya to leave office only at the end of the President’s term in June.

“Five months is a long time if we keep the safety of our commuters in mind,” she said.

But Sen. Vicente Sotto III thinks that with only six months left of the Aquino administration, keeping Abaya in the post was “the prudent thing to do.”

Sen. Sonny Angara said that if the President is decided on retaining Abaya, the latter should put in place drastic measures to address the very serious problems in the public transport sector. With reports from Ryan Rosauro, Inquirer Mindanao;  and DJ Yap and Leila B. Salaverria in Manila/TVJ

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