Roxas ready to face MRT-3 probe

MANILA, Philippines - Former secretary Mar Roxas will face the Senate inquiry into the controversies and problems hounding the Metro Rail Transit-3 that critics alleged started during his term at the defunct Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Former Akbayan party-list representative Ibarra Gutierrez, who was Roxas’ spokesman during the 2016 presidential campaign, said the latter is ready to defend his track record at the DOTC.

“He is willing to set the record straight,” Gutierrez said.

Roxas and his wife Korina Sanchez are currently in the US to attend the graduation of his 23-year-old son Paolo, who took up Economics from Yale University in Connecticut.

Sen. Grace Poe, chair of Senate committee on public services, on Tuesday said she would invite Roxas to shed light on the MRT-3 mess.

The committee is conducting an inquiry into the poor performance of the MRT-3, including almost daily breakdowns and frequent accidents attributed to inefficiency and corruption at the DOTC and MRT-3 during the previous administration.

“I think this will be his chance to explain himself,” Poe told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing. However, there is still no definite schedule for the next hearing.

During the hearing, former MRT-3 general manager Al Vitangcol testified that around May 2012, he sent Roxas a letter informing him that the maintenance contract with Sumitomo Corp. would soon expire and the DOTC should immediately act on the matter.

Vitangcol, who is facing a graft case before the Sandiganbayan on a transaction for the MRT-3, said the MRT Corp., which owns the train system, also wrote a separate letter to Roxas informing of the same and asking him to let the corporation look for a maintenance supplier to speed things up.

Vitangcol alleged that Roxas did not act on the matter and when his successor Joseph Emilio Abaya assumed the top DOTC post in September 2012, the issue became urgent and the agency had to tap the services of PH Trams, APT Global, and Busan Universal Rail Inc. (BURI) in succession.