MRT-3 awarded P290 M to 2-month-old company

 It’s odd enough that the MRT-3 contracted the firm of the alleged $30-million extorter. Odder yet, that firm was but two months old when the MRT-3 gave it $6.9 million (P290 million).

PH Trams, in joint venture with CB&T, bagged the hefty MRT-3 maintenance contract on Oct. 19, 2012. It had applied for registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission only on Aug. 6, 2012.

One of PH Trams’ incorporators-directors is Wilson de Vera. He is accused of earlier attempting to extort $30 million from Czech train maker Inekon (Gotcha, 21 Apr. 2014).

Signatory to the P290-million deal was MRT-3 GM Al Vitangcol. It was supposedly for him that de Vera demanded the $30 million. Another signer was Transport Sec. Joseph Emilio Abaya, who a year later hastily would clear Vitangcol of the exposed scandal.

PH Trams’ paid-up capital was only P625,000 when it got the contract 464 times bigger. Its authorized capital was P10 million, of which P2.5 million was subscribed when de Vera filed for registration (Company Reg. No. OS201230134).

Anti-graft laws frown on huge deals granted to miniscule outfits. Government biddings usually require participants with experience of five years in the service and 50 percent of the amount being contracted.

The MRT-3 contract stated that the PH Trams-CB&T joint venture “is technically, legally, and financially capable to undertake the interim maintenance.” A third signatory was U-Sec. Jose Perpetuo Lotilla, legal affairs, Dept. of Transportation and Communications.

Signing for CB&T (Comm Builders & Technology Corp.) was president Roehl B. Bacar, an old time contractor at the DOTC. Incorporated in 2003 (SEC Reg. No. CS200315200), CB&T reported paid-up capital of P9 million and assets of P145,569,553 in March 2013.

Signing as witness was de Vera, for PH Trams (Philippine Trans Rail Management and Services Corp.).

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The alleged squeeze play occurred on July 9, 2012. The $30 million was so Inekon could skirt public biddings, and negotiate a government-to-government setup. Having acquired the original Czech supplier of MRT-3, it was angling to sell 48 new coaches, refit 73 old ones, and maintain the entire fleet and railway.

Czech Amb. Josef Rychtar and Inekon CEO Josef Hušek told the NBI that Vitangcol and de Vera invited them to dinner in Makati. Also present: Inekon officer Milan Haloun, consultant Manolo Maralit, and Marlo de la Cruz, later to become PH Trams chairman. The group, sans Vitangcol, then moved to Rychtar’s residence. There, de Vera allegedly broached the $30-million payoff; Hušek rejected it. De Vera purportedly conferred twice by mobile with Vitangcol, after which he lowered the amount to $2.5 million; Hušek again declined.

In formal talks the next day at the MRT-3 office, Rychtar and Hušek alleged, Vitangcol and de Vera repeated the cash demand. Too, Vitangcol purportedly imposed a forced partnership of Inekon with his chosen group. The Czechs refused, and left. Months later, Rychtar swore, Maralit informed him about joining the new PH Trams company and its maintenance contract with the MRT-3.

Denying the scam, Vitangcol countered that he never met with the Czechs or de Vera at a bistro, only at his office. It was the Czechs who brought in de Vera, he swore. They made up the extortion tale because he insisted on a public bidding, against Inekon’s overpriced negotiating.

De Vera confirmed both the July 9 dinner and July 10 meeting with Vitangcol and the Czechs. But he said he was only invited to explore a partnership of PH Trams with Inekon — not extortion. He was then gearing to run for mayor of Calasiao, Pangasinan, under the ruling Liberal Party.

Apart from those about who came and brought whom to dinner, two other discrepancies stand out:

• First, Vitangcol said he preferred public bidding; yet, after Inekon was eased out, his consequent maintenance-only contract with PH-Trams was by closed-door negotiating, not open bidding. He led in drafting the terms of reference. (The supply side eventually went to China’s Dalian Corp.)

• Second, de Vera swore that he, Maralit, and de la Cruz attended the meetings as directors of PH Trams. Yet PH Trams was unborn then. In filing for SEC registration on Aug. 6, 2012, de Vera attested that the company “is in the process of incorporation with the SEC.” In a Treasurer’s affidavit also on that day Maralit authorized the SEC to verify their P625,000-deposit in a bank in Quezon City.

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The MRT-3 deal with PH Trams was $1.15 million a month for six months, Oct. 2012 to Apr. 2013. Signed Oct. 19, 2012, it was “emergency in nature,” as the regular maintenance service of Japanese giant Sumitomo was to expire the next day.

Controversies had rocked the negotiations of Oct. 10-12, 2012:

• One was why the DOTC was negotiating at all, when it had ample time to hold a public bidding. Sumitomo’s original ten-year deal — with the Metro Rail Transit Corp. that built the railway — had expired in July 2010. MRTC extended it four times, to Oct. 2012, when the DOTC abruptly decided to end it. Abaya said then that Sumitomo’s $2.1-million monthly charge was too high. “Another entity can do it cheaper,” he added, without specifying which. Critics said then that a public bidding would fetch a better deal.

• Another was Vitangcol’s announcement of a contender that never was. That was on Oct. 12, 2012, the last of three days of individual talks with three joint ventures: Sumitomo-TES Philippines, MiescoRail-Genials, and PH Trams-CB&T. Sumitomo-TES on Oct. 10 had offered $2 million a month, higher than Vitangcol’s set ceiling of $1.43 million. Supposedly left in the running were MiescoRail and PH Trams, which gave offers on Oct. 11 and 12. At once, MiescoRail clarified news reports that while it did present its credentials, it also told DOTC negotiators that it had scant time to compute a bid, having been notified only two days prior. By the time the DOTC and MRT-3 replied to MiescoRail in Nov. 2012, the deal with PH Trams-CB&T already was running.

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