The Czech ambassador’s letter

Just as I thought... I was right to say in this column last week that I didn’t think the President’s sister could be involved in an alleged attempt to extort $30 million from a Czech company in exchange for a supply contract for the Metro Rail Transit. Inekon, the Czech company, was the original manufacturer of the MRT 3 coaches.

There were telltale signs that the supposed “expose” was nothing more than a crude attempt to smear the reputation of someone close to P-Noy by those who may actually be guilty of the crime alleged. It looked like a diversionary and preemptive move because the attempt failed and they fear being exposed. The letter of Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar to P-Noy suggests that to be the case.

One other reason why I knew the story cannot be true was the inclusion of Steve Psinakis in the alleged conspiracy. The last time I had a meeting with Steve was a couple of years ago and by then, his Parkinson’s affliction was well in place. His hands were shaky and his voice was already soft and garbled. It was tough trying to keep a conversation. I know he has been keeping himself at home and not even socializing. It was not just unfair but unkind to throw dirt on the reputation of a sick old man who has served his adopted country well.

Anyway, I obtained a copy of that letter of the Czech ambassador. In it, he made it clear that the allegation of extortion on the part of the President’s sister and brother-in-law is far from the truth.

Ambassador Rychtar told P-Noy: “I wish to state that the allegations that members of your family were involved with discussions with Inekon on any projects in the Philippines are simply untrue and malicious… no members of your family has offered their assistance in any of the projects that my country is pursuing in the Philippines.”

The Czech ambassador made clear that the “proposal for the MRT 3 capacity expansion and modernization is a government to government deal which cannot contain any provisions for commissions.”

The ambassador also revealed that “Over the last three years, we have transmitted more than 10 official letters from our Ministry of Trade and Foreign Affairs supporting this proposal and submitted to the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) booklets of extensive technical plans and financial proposals in order to comply with Philippine Procurement Procedures. We continue to wait patiently for a response from the DOTC.”

Was DOTC stalling for you know what? They could have at least responded, the polite thing to do. More troubling is this paragraph in the ambassador’s letter that seems to imply that there was an extortion attempt but that it was done by unnamed DOTC officials. He said he talked to DOTC Sec Abaya about it but no action was taken.

“In early April 2013, I was able to secure a meeting with Secretary Emilio Abaya to report an incident between some officials of his department and myself, together with the top management of Inekon. While I still have to discern who are behind these terrible press releases, I had hoped that Secretary Abaya would have dealt with this issue in a swift and judicious manner before it reached this embarrassing and untenable state of affairs.”

If this is what I suspect it is, it should alarm P-Noy enough to take a direct hand in cleaning up DOTC. The corruption at DOTC is quite well known and deeply entrenched. I had long suspected that DOTC rejected the MRT 3 privatization bid of Manny Pangilinan because of ulterior motives. There are people there who look at MRT 3 as their piggy bank… a very fat piggy bank, if you know what I mean.

In fact, it may be well worth the time and effort of the Ombudsman to ask some pertinent questions behind the so called interim maintenance contract for MRT 3. Its award seems rather suspicious and that’s not the worse part… it could have life and death consequences for riders of the MRT.

I found out that there was some misrepresentation in a press release attributed to DOTC that announced the award. The story claimed that that Miescorrail Inc., a subsidiary of Meralco, submitted an offer for the maintenance service at a monthly fee of $1.2 million a month, which is higher than that of the selected proponent at $1,150,000.

But Chito Francisco of Miescor wrote to DOTC “to set the record straight that they were unable to submit a comprehensive technical proposal and firm commercial offer because of insufficient time.”

Mr. Francisco’s letter recalled that “We received a letter from the DOTC·MRT 3 last Oct. 9, 2012 inviting us to express our intent to maintain the MRT Une 3 System and present our technical proposal and commercial offer on October 11, 2012.” That’s just two days lead time for a complicated proposal. By October 12, the Manila Bulletin already published a story announcing the results of the “bidding”. Obviously, niluto na.

“No Terms of Reference was made available… the actual Terms of Reference of the original Maintenance Agreement were not provided. Hence, the definitive basis for the scope of works for the maintenance service and the performance requirement being demanded for which the proposal is to be prepared were not made available.”

So, where did DOTC get the figure that Miescor was supposed to have submitted? Was there an actual bidding or just an awarding to a favored entity? “Emergency” is being invoked but that is often used as an excuse to dispense with our strict procurement law with a negotiated agreement.

That interim maintenance contract has expired and they have extended it for a two month period that ended June 19, claiming emergency. I guess they are extending it two months at a time so they can claim emergency every time and go around the rules.

The new maintenance contract for a two month period is at $2,300,000. I went through the contracts as published on the DOTC website and there was no explanation if it was just for labor or includes spare parts. There must be an explanation but DOTC is not telling the public.

It is interesting to see the scope of the contracts. If the contracts only cover labor cost, that looks excessive in peso terms. At just P40-$1, P40 million pesos a month will buy a lot of labor time.

How come DOTC can move fast when it wants to with no regard to Daang Matuwid guidelines but extremely slow, if at all, on long gestating projects that have been studied ad nauseam?

I am really curious what the Czech ambassador talked about with Sec Jun Abaya. I hope the ambassador tells P-Noy what he knows because by doing so, he will do the Filipino people a big favor in weeding out corruption in one of our most corrupt government agencies.

If P-Noy still fails to act on this one, when his family’s reputation is already being besmirched, I guess he will prove himself absolutely spineless and the rest of his watch will be pretty hopeless. Get mad, P-Noy… get mad na… but not at me because I only want you to succeed for our people’s sake. The people will be behind you when you really show how Daang Matuwid works.

LTO

Here is a letter from a doctor in Bacolod:

They have no supply of stickers and plates. Here in Bacolod, it would take months for you to receive your latest registration sticker and over a year for your license plate. Is that acceptable?

I tried to renew the registration of my car this week. It took a day to accomplish just the smoke emission test alone! And to think that no one flunks that, no matter how smoky the vehicle (I hope it is abolished next- just like drug testing, it has obviously not served its purpose). Another day for the registration proper... For which, at the end of the line, i was told to come back the next day.

The next day, I learned that I could not complete the renewal of my car’s registration because they could not retrieve its records – because “they did not upload it yet in Manila”. Can you believe that? three days gone, all for naught.

I was told to follow-up next week and, if it is not uploaded still, maybe in a month. Meanwhile, i was given a temporary pass. Didn’t know there was such a thing. I am left scratching my head.

That’s for vehicle registration alone! Imagine the horror stories in their other sections!

So please, Mr. President, for the sake of Daang Matuwid, just fire the LTO chief already!

Strategic

Romana Borromeo sent this one from Guru Gyan.

To err is human. To blame someone else for your problem is strategic.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco