Berroya, other MRT executives face raps over rail ad dispute

MANILA, Philippines - Criminal and administrative charges were filed against Metro Rail Transit general manager Reynaldo Berroya and his fellow officials at the MRT before the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday for their involvement in an alleged conspiracy to allow or tolerate the illegal use of a private firm’s advertising structures along the EDSA-bound rail line.

Outdoor media firm Trackworks filed a complaint against Berroya, his assistant Fernando Quiambao and several others, saying that MRT officials had allowed the use of their ad structures in favor of the MRT Development Corp. (MRT Devco) and Media Puzzle, Inc.

Trackworks’ complaint stemmed from the MRT officials’ refusal to grant Trackworks access to the company’s privately-owned advertising structures, even as they allowed MRT Devco and its sales arm Media Puzzle to use these structures to engage in their advertising business on them.

According to its complaint, the refusal of Berroya and his men to allow Trackworks access has deprived it of significant advertising business, which could have been used by the government to offset its subsidies to the MRT.

Trackworks and MRT Devco are currently involved in a contractual dispute over advertising rights on the MRT. Trackworks, for its part, said that they still have a pending case currently before the court-mandated arbiter, Philippine Dispute Resolutions Center.

While under arbitration, Trackworks said a court ordered last January that they be allowed to continue their business activities on the MRT.

However, Trackworks alleged that Berroya has refused to grant them permission to access the MRT, and instead started issuing permits to MRT Devco, which is led by chairman Robert Sobrepena, of the Fil-Estate Management group and formerly chair of the College Assurance Plan (CAP) group.

Trackworks has been the advertising agent of the MRT since the latter began operations on the basis of its contract with MRT Devco, which holds the development rights to the MRT. The development rights include the permission to develop and lease retail areas along the MRT facilities, and to generate advertising revenue from them.

Trackworks said that it has paid MRT Devco some P500 million since 2000 for the advertising rights. MRT Devco, meanwhile, has recently been asked by the government to settle some P1 billion in development rights payments.

Berroya, for his part, brushed off the complaint filed against him, saying that he was just being dragged by Trackworks in their business dispute with the MRT Devco.

“As the company that was given the development rights over the MRT, we are mandated to deal only with the MRT Devco which has been the case ever since. Trackworks used to be the advertising agent of MRT Devco but their contract has been terminated by MRT Devco, so now we talk to the current agent of MRT Devco,” he said.

Berroya said he is confident he will be cleared by the Ombudsman of all of the charges by Trackworks.