DOTr sues former Aquino cabinet men for plunder over MRT-3 mess

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) filed on Tuesday a plunder complaint against former Cabinet members in the Aquino administration, including former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio “Jun” Abaya, over the allegedly anomalous maintenance contract for the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3).

DOTr representatives lodged the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman a day after different groups likewise filed a complaint for graft and violation of the government procurement law against Abaya and other former transportation officials, also due to the problems hounding the MRT-3, which stemmed from the purported anomalous deal.

“This is actually in response to the public clamor and cry for accountability for the dismal state of our train system,” Reinier Yebra, DOTr undersecretary for legal affairs and procurement, told reporters after the filing.

Yebra said it was allegedly Roxas and Abaya who were the main conspirators in the scheme that involved the P3.8 million MRT maintenance contract of the government with Busan Universal Rail, Inc. (BURI).

The DOTr lawyers, acting as complainants, accused the respondents of violating Section 2 of the Anti-plunder Act, section 3 of the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and Section 10 of the Government Procurement Act.

Apart from Roxas and Abaya, the DOTr complaint named as respondents majority of the Aquino administration’s cabinet men: former Budget Secretary Butch Abad, former Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, former Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, former Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, former Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson, former Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo, and former National Economic Development Authority chief Arsenio Balisacan.

TONS OF DOCUMENTS. The Department of Transportation (DOTr) files on Tuesday, November 21, 2017, a plunder complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against former Cabinet members in the Aquino administration, including former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Transportation Secretary Jun Abaya, over the allegedly anomalous maintenance contract for the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3). (INQUIRER.net / Jullianne Love de Jesus)

The DOTr likewise included in their complaint sheet former MRT General Manager Roman Buenafe; former Transportation undersecretaries Rene Limcaoco, Catherine Gonzales, and Edwin Lopez; former Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) officials; officials of BURI; and a certain Marlo Dela Cruz.

DOTr Assistant Secretary for legal affairs Giovanni Lopez said they have sufficient evidence to prove that Aquino’s men conspired to pocket public funds through the DOTr’s maintenance deal for the MRT, which is now being hounded with numerous mechanical issues.

“Isang malaking conspiracy sa mga dating officials at members ng BURI, for the past eight months, from the start of the contract of BURI, they paid BURI every month by P54 million without deduction despite unperformed service and undelivered spare parts so for us that reason’s enough to hold them accountable for the crime of plunder,” Lopez said.

In the 64-page complaint, Roxas and Abaya were accused of using the maintenance programs for the MRT-3 as a “fundraiser.”

“(They) set into motion a grand scheme of turning the DOTC as a bottomless cash cow, entering into one anomalous procurement project after the other, in order to amass, accumulate and acquire ill-gotten wealth by taking advantage of their official position, authority and influence to unjustly enrich themselves at the expense and to the damage and prejudice of the Filipino people,” the complaint said.

The complaint said Roxas and other Liberal Party stalwarts “eased out” Sumitomo Corporation, which has been maintaining the MRT since the 1980s, and “replaced it with their own dummy corporations.”

The complaint noted that a day after Abaya replaced Roxas as chief of the then Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in 2012, Abaya gave the P517.5 million MRT maintenance contract to PH Trams-CB&T.

This, according to complainants, was when the “rapid deterioration of MRT’s trains, tracks, signaling, power supply and stations started.”

“The PH Trams is merely a dummy entity for the respondents belonging to the Liberal Party,” the complaint stated.

Later, the complaint pointed out, the respondents “rigged the entire bidding process to ensure that BURI was able to secure the project despite the fact that its submissions for the eligibility and technical components of the project were severely lacking and that it is not a technically, legally and financially capable contractor that may manage and operate the project.”  /kga