Railway Usec working against Filipino interest

The issue at MRT-3 remains the same: DOTr needs to be true about the rehab cost of the commuter railway. As well, about repairs, if any, of the defective trains from China. U-Sec. TJ Batan’s badmouthing me on DZMM, while snubbing my interview requests since May, shows he’s hiding something. The Filipino people are to repay the stiff P18 billion that he’s borrowing, no details given, for the rehab. Innocents are to ride the uncertified, likely unsafe, Chinese trains. They deserve transparency from Batan. He also evades talks on his role in the purchase of those faulty trains, in which bribes were sworn to have changed hands. Should disaster strike, blood will be on his hands.

Batan plays dumb about an offer of Metro Rail Transit Corp., MRT-3’s private builder-owner, to rehab it for only P7.5 billion. Claiming that Sumitomo’s new rep has denied knowledge of such amount, he dismisses my reports. Worse, he tramples on the Filipino public interest.

Batan’s slip is showing. He has been with DOTr since 2012, as right-hand man of the U-Sec. who signed contracts for MRT-3. MRTC’s P7.5-billion plan was first made when Batan’s boss was running MRT-3 to the ground with inept upkeep contractors. The papers were submitted, under oath, to Senate investigators in 2015. They were reoffered to DOTr thrice in 2016 and 2017. Newspapers even reported MRTC’s rehab plan with Sumitomo in Nov. 2017.

Batan must have read MRTC-Sumitomo’s 26-month work scope, no MRT-3 service disruption, payment merely to pass through MRTC to Sumitomo. Rehab portion, $98 million: power supply, overhead catenaries, radio/CCTVs, PABX/PA (public address), signaling, and automatic fare collection systems; replacement of tracks; Unimog emergency vehicles; station facilities, elevators, escalators; depot equipment; and overhaul of 73 (original) light rail vehicles. Maintenance portion, $53 million: entire system.

In fact, Batan rattles off those same documented items in his press releases. Except that, he leaves out the quoted amounts: $98 million + $53 million = P7.5 billion.

Instead, he foists on the people his P18 billion – no breakdown – an unexplained excess of P10.5 billion. That’s the price he wants to sign with the same Sumitomo in the coming days.

A true public official would have gone to Sumitomo and said, “Look, your old rep gave us this rehab plus maintenance figure, P7.5 billion, in 2015-2017. If we deal directly with you, what are your price details for each work item?” Then he would have published it for transparency in government transactions.

Batan instead refuses to break down his P18 billion. Like, what goes into track replacement, overhead catenaries, stations and depot, overhaul of 73 LRVs, and maintenance. What is he afraid of – that railway experts in the Philippines and abroad would discover and point up overpricing?

As for the 48 flawed trains from Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp., Batan forcibly is running three of the LRVs. It’s only for show, as Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Manila this week. The trains have been inoperative since delivery in 2015-2016.

Separate audits by Sumitomo and TUV Rheinland revealed that 94 components were untested for safety, reliability, and durability. The 48 LRVs must be returned to factory for repairs, they said in May. That would have taken months. Yet Batan now claims that the LRVs have been redone.

If that’s true, Batan must show documentary proof. No one wants to sign certifications of safety tests, buyer satisfaction, acceptance, and contract completion. The trains did not meet 2013 contract specifications. Anyone who now signs those certificates will go to jail.

Batan’s U-Sec.-boss had signed the P3.8-billion Dalian purchase in 2013. The MRT-3 general manager at the time, Atty. Al Vitangcol, has attested in court that there was five percent kickback -- P190 million or $4 million. President Xi is cracking down on corruption in his government. Sooner or later he’ll find out about that.

Batan’s role in that fuzzy deal eventually will out. As well, links to a supplier that invariably bags emergency purchases. Going to DZMM one-sidedly to bash me will not hide the truth.

Meantime, who’s maintaining the Dalian trains that Batan riskily is running? Has the 3.3-ton overweight of each LRV, or 9.9 tons per train, been fixed? How about the misfit bogey frames and wheels? And the wrong length of the chassis that makes it impossible to hoist the 48 Dalian LRVs on the existing depot platform for inspection, repair, and maintenance? If those haven’t been fixed, 350,000 daily MRT-3 riders are in danger.

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“Bintao: Ang Buhay at Kabayanihan ni Wenceslao Q. Vinzons,” will be staged at the UP Theater, Diliman, Quezon City. The play traces the life of the UP student council president and Collegian editor-turned-politician then was martyred as a guerrilla during the Japanese Occupation.

Written by Efren Yambot; directed by Tony Mabesa and Alexander Cortez. Presented as part of Upsilon Sigma Phi’s 100th anniversary celebration.

Play dates: Nov. 23 at 7 p.m.; Nov. 24, 3 and 7 p.m. For tickets and other inquiries, contact Camille Guevara 0917-8239531, or Kami Andre De Asis 0995-1417613.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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