Senate to investigate, solve MRT-3 anomalies

Today’s Senate hearing on the Metro Rail Transit-Line 3 (MRT-3) arose from four filings:

• Senate Bill 2266, “National Transportation Safety Board Act,” by Sen. Grace Poe;

• Senate Resolution 839, to investigate in aid of legislation the MRT-3 incident last Aug. 13, and re-examine the mass-transport system for planning in the next half-century, by Sen. Sonny Angara;

• Senate Resolution 840, to inquire into the increasing incidents of train malfunction arising from inadequate maintenance of MRT-3, and promote a passenger-first mentality among public transport authorities and operators, by Sen. Nancy Binay; and

• Senate Resolution 841, to investigate the frequent accidents caused by inefficient operations and maintenance of MRT-3, for passenger safety, by Sen. Bam Aquino.

Expect transport officials to lie through their teeth, as they did at a House of Reps hearing last May. That hearing was on their alleged extortion try in July 2012 on MRT-3’s Czech train supplier Inekon Inc., exposed by the Czech ambassador in Apr. 2013. Also, on then-MRT-3 general manager Al S. Vitangcol’s awarding of the maintenance contract in Oct. 2012 to two-month-old, inexperienced and undercapitalized PH Trams, in which the incorporators-directors are his uncle-in-law and two of the alleged extorters. Vitangcol denied the crime and any acquaintance with supposed cohorts, chairman Marlo dela Cruz and Wilson de Vera. Yet dela Cruz often was seen at his office, and his and de Vera’s wives hail from the same barangay in Calasiao town, Pangasinan. He also claimed, but showed no proof, that uncle-in-law Arturo Soriano, the Pangasinan provincial capitol’s chief accountant, had divested from PH Trams just before he awarded the contract. “Palusot (alibi),” said Rep. Rudy Fariñas of Vitangcol’s attempt to wriggle out of a clear case of graft.

Contract co-signatory Transport Sec. Joseph Emilio Abaya too disowned dela Cruz and de Vera. Yet the former is his compadre and financier of the ruling Liberal Party, of which he is president, and the latter ran for LP mayor of Calasiao in 2013.

With third co-signer U-Sec. Jose Perpetuo Lotilla, they claimed to have held a public bidding, in which PH Trams and partner Comm-Builders and Transport (CB&T) emerged the lowest bidder. Yet what they had conducted were closed-door negotiations with two, not three companies as they claimed then. Lotilla also said they had looked more not at PH Trams but CB&T’s years of experience in maintaining the Light Rail Transit-Line 1 (LRT-1). This was in effect an admission of sloppy contracting of $1.15 million a month, or P517.5 million to PH Trams in ten months. From CB&T’s press statements (after this column exposed the anomalies) it was in charge of the servicing, while PH Trams’ role was to stockpile on spare parts and basic equipment. The latter allegedly failed to fulfill its part.

At any rate, most senators are known to be diligent researchers. In studying records at the Dept. of Transportation and Communications and the Securities and Exchange Commission, they would find out who the other incorporators are of PH Trams. Aside from dela Cruz, de Vera, and Soriano, there are also Manolo Maralit and wife, and Federico Remo. Remo was then-executive vice president of the government’s Philippine Export-Import Guaranty Agency. Why the DOTC did not look into the presence of a high government official in its service contractor is a mystery for the senators to fathom.

Corruption apparently was the cause of sloppy maintenance, which in turn led to many accidents under PH Trams in Oct. 2012-Aug.2013. In Sept. 2013 another newcomer, Global Inc., partnered with Autre Porte Technique (APT) to take over PH Trams’ exposed deal. On record, the “authorized representative” of Global and the consortium is the same Marlo dela Cruz. A silent partner in Global is a high official of the Philippine National Railways, also under Abaya, in clear conflict of interest.

APT has been maintaining the LRT-Line 2 from the start. Why this experienced firm had to tie up with newbie Global to get into MRT-3, as CB&T did with PH Trams, LRT Authority president and now concurrent MRT-3 GM Honorito Chaneco needs to explain.

Along with Abaya and Lotilla, Chaneco had signed the Global-APT contract – $1.4 million a month, or P756 million for 12 months. Expiring on Friday, Sept. 5, the contract is to be extended by one to three years – by mere negotiation – Abaya and Chaneco boldly have declared. Their lame excuse is that they have no more time for a public bidding, which would take three months. Why they hadn’t started the bidding process in June, to meet the Sept. deadline, only the crooked can answer.

The Aug. 13 accident was one of many under Global in which dozens of MRT-3 passengers had to be hospitalized for injuries. Once, two jam-packed trams ignited. Another time, a three-tram train suddenly braked by itself, slamming passengers onto the walls and floor. That fateful afternoon three weeks ago, a half-full train, being pushed by another after it stopped dead on its tracks, went loose, derailed, and rammed onto an electricity post. Forty passengers, and motorists and pedestrians on the busy adjacent avenue were injured. Abaya was quick to blame the drivers of the two trains for failure to manually check their coupling. He and Chaneco were silent on why the train lost power and brakes, and would not restart to begin with – issues of bad maintenance.

Since then, MRT-3 operations have had to be suspended seven times due to various reasons: flooded stretches of tracks, conked out radio communications repeater, voltage fluctuation. These were basically because the maintenance contractor did not inspect anti-flood, radio repeater, lightning arresters, and power systems. It also did not stockpile basic supplies like submersible water pumps, standby two-way radios or all-day cell phones, and circuit breakers.

Senators Poe’s National Transport Safety Board and Binay’s “safety-first” are a crucial policy step. Such agency primarily would investigate and determine the causes of land, sea and air accidents, and make safety recommendations for all to follow.

The rationale is simple: the DOTC (and Dept. of Public Works and Highways) are planners and regulators. So are its operating arms, the Civil Aeronautics Board, Maritime Industry Authority, Coast Guard, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Land Transportation Office, etc. Agencies like the MRT-3, LRTA, PNR, meanwhile, are operators that purchase supplies like spare parts, and services like maintenance. In case of foul-ups – bus collisions, ship overloading – the planners-regulators-operators are likely to spare themselves of blame and spanking. Rare is an agency like the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines that would suspend its own officers for sloppily renewing a pilot license, airplane inspection clearance, and charter service permit that led to the fatal crash of Interior secretary Jesse Robredo in Aug. 2012. And that is only because of the CAAP’s current strict managers. Usually there is a need to “guard the guardians, via an independent agency.

Such an NTSB investigated the collision of a speeding freight train with a passenger version in the Canadian Rockies in 1986, in which 23 riders were killed and scores maimed. It was not content with the train authorities’ finding of driver error by speeding. The NTSB found the train authorities to be making drivers with only three to four hours’ night sleep drive half a day, and sloppy training. Such agency too investigated the 2007 crash of an Indonesian Boeing 737 airliner, in which all 102 passengers and crew perished. Again the NTSB did not stop with the aviation investigators’ findings of pilot error in accidentally shutting off the autopilot while trouble-shooting a malfunctioning navigational system. It found an intrinsic defect in the Boeing tail rudder, and ordered the company to fix it.

Senators’ Angara and Aquino’s resolutions would delve into the need to upgrade the MRT-3 to fit more than just three to four trams per train, stations, tracks, signal and power systems, and compatibility of the DOTC’s purchased China-made trams with the original trains and facilities.

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