MANILA, Philippines — Former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya admitted at a Senate hearing that he signed the maintenance contract of the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3) in 2012 without fully knowing its details.
Abaya, the transportation secretary during the time of the erstwhile Benigno Aquino III, admitted at the hearing that he signed the contract with PH Trams despite knowing only limited information on its background and its small paid-up capital of only P625,000.
PH Trams was incorporated only two months before it bagged the P517.5-million contract for the maintenance of MRT-3, according to Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate public services committee looking into the issue.
Poe said that Abaya’s admission that he did not fully understand the contract details when he signed it was the biggest revelation at the hearing, which probed into the poor maintenance of the train line running from Taft Avenue in Pasay City to North Avenue in Quezon City as well as the still-unusable train cars from Dalian Locomotive in China.
"Yun nga siguro yung pinakamalaking rebelasyon dito, pinayagan niya yung maintenance contract na pumasok para palitan yung Sumitomo pero hindi pala niya alam ang detalye nito. Basta pinirmahan na lang niya dahil sabi niya bago lamang siya doon pero yung nakaraang secretary at yung mga tauhan niya ang nagdesisyon dito," Poe told reporters after the hearing.
Sumitomo, along with TES Philippines, was awarded a 10-year maintenance contract for the MRT in 2000.
Upon its expiration in 2010, the Sumitomo contract was extended up to 2012. It was in that year when the joint venture of PH Trams and CB&T was awarded the contract to repair and maintain the train line on an interim basis up to August 2013.
The maintenance of MRT-3 was transferred to Global APT until 2014. The current maintenance provider of the line is Busan Universal Rail Inc. (BURI), a consortium composed of Busan Transportation Corporation, Edison Development and Construction, Tramat Mecantile Inc., TMI Corp. and Castan Corp.
For much of the Aquino administration, MRT trains experienced numerous technical glitches that inconvenienced its passengers, estimated at 500,000 daily.
In August 2014, more than 30 people were hurt after an MRT train careened through its Taft Avenue station.
Since then, problems such as poor air conditioning and defective elevators and escalators continue to hound the train line.
Vowing innocence
Abaya, meanwhile, defended himself and maintained that his conscience was clear regarding the MRT-3 issue and the problems that continued to beset it.
Abaya said that he was newly appointed to the position when he signed the contract and that he assumed that the civil servants at the Department of Transportation knew what they were doing.
File photo of Joseph Emilio "Jun" Abaya, former transportation secretary under President Benigno Aquino III. PCOO
He added that if he did not sign the contract the operations of the train line would have stopped on Oct. 19, 2012 as Sumitomo's contract was due to expire.
"Noong nandon po ako, ma’am, I was new then, hindi ko po alam ‘yung mga facts pong ‘yan… there was a presumption that the organization, that the bureaucracy was doing its job. Just imagine, ma’am, if I came there as a doubting Thomas, being careful that I won’t sign anything, MRT-3 would have stopped on October 19. No maintenance provider, Sumitomo would have packed its bags—that, I could not explain to our people," Abaya said to reporters.
Poe said that the committee’s investigation would look into the involvement of Marlo Dela Cruz, the chairman of PH Trams and later the authorized representative of Global APT.
Poe said that she was wondering why the company of Dela Cruz, which was newly incorporated with a low capital at the time, was given the contract. The senator hinted that this might be due to his connections to some powerful people at DOTC.
"Alam mo pinag-iingatan ko na huwag sasabihing pulitika ito pero nakikita talaga na 'yung isang incorporator na hindi dumating ngayon, na pinapa-subpoena ko, si Marlo Dela Cruz ay talagang kasama siya sa mga nananalo sa mga bidding na 'yung kanyang kumpanya bagong-bago, bagong incorporate, napakaliit ng kapitalisasyon, ang meron lamang siya ay koneksyon doon sa mga nakaraang nakaupo sa DOTC. Sa tingin ko, ito 'yung talagang nag-ugat ng problema dito," Poe said.