Raps vs Vitangcol mere cover-up? Abaya commits more wrongs

The graft indictment of MRT-3 manager Al S. Vitangcol is a virtual cover-up. The rap singles him out, and lets off the hook his co-conspirator-superiors at the DOTC. Thus it conceals their bigger crime of plunder of P535 million for the ruling Liberal Party.

Vitangcol is likely to go to jail – alone. His is an open and shut case, as exposed in this space in May 2014. He contracted for six months’ maintenance work, at $1.15 million (P51 million) a month starting Oct. 20, 2012, a company in which his uncle-in-law Arturo V. Soriano is one of five incorporator-directors. He did it by closed-door negotiating instead of public bidding. That company, PH Trams, was only two months old at the time, with mere P625,000-capital, and no experience in railways. The Ombudsman saw two violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act: giving undue advantage and preference to a contractor, if not gross inexcusable negligence; and directly or indirectly having financial or pecuniary interest in the contract. Vitangcol faces up to 15 years’ sentence; only six if he pleads guilty.

Co-accused uncle Soriano, the Pangasinan provincial accountant, could share the prison cell. Four other PH Trams incorporators, chairman Marlo dela Cruz, directors Wilson de Vera, Manolo Maralit, and Federico Remo, could get off lighter, in falsely certifying that their company had no conflict of interest in having a relative among the contracting officials. This early, Vitangcol alone had to post bail of P30,000.

Unlikely to visit Vitangcol behind bars are Transport Sec. Joseph Emilio Abaya and U-Sec. Jose Perpetuo Lotilla. The two had signed with him the PH Trams contract, so equally liable for gross negligence. But the Ombudsman has not deigned charge them. Abaya lamely claims he was only two days in office when he signed the original deal, while Lotilla says they looked into the credentials of the firm’s experienced joint venture partner CB&T. In truth, though, both had extended the six-month maintenance thrice – two times by two months each and the last by two weeks – so were later well aware of the sleazy circumstances.

Co-signing the three extensions was LRT boss Honorito Chaneco, as then-MRT-3 officer-in-charge. Two other U-Secs., Rene K. Limcaoco and Rafael Antonio M. Santos, as DOTC head of finance and acting secretary in Oct. 2012, were with the bids and awards committee that oversaw Vitangcol’s secret negotiations. (Santos is now justice of the Court of Appeals.) With them too were Asst. Secs. Ildefonso Patdu and Dante Lantin. As their roles were collegial, they must have induced their fellows or allowed themselves to be induced to conspire in crime, a breach of the anti-graft law too. In all they had allowed PH Trams to be paid a total of P535 million, way above the approved project budget of P350 million. During the ten-and-a-half months, no real maintenance was done, and the commuter rail deteriorated. Thus they broke yet another provision of the anti-graft law: entering into a contract grossly and manifestly disadvantageous to the government.

Not only must Vitangcol’s DOTC superiors be indicted, but it also should be for no-bail plunder. The amount exceeds the threshold P50 million. Moreover was committed a combination and series of crimes. “It did not happen overnight, but was a product of long ... malice,” noted the Ombudsman investigators, whose original findings were nixed. In Nov. 2010 the DOTC suddenly grabbed from MRT Corp., the railway’s private owner-builder, the lucrative contracting since 2000 of the upkeep. Thence it extended giant Sumitomo Corp.’s decade-long deal only every six months. In Apr. 2012 DOTC told MRT Corp. it no longer would renew Sumitomo but look for a replacement to commence Oct. 2012. Instead of at once setting a public bidding, DOTC bosses did nothing – till two weeks before expiration. They declared an emergency situation of losing the MRT-3 daily maintenance. That paved the way for “simplified bidding,” that is, secret talks, with fledgling PH Trams.

The proceeds of the plunder is obvious. PH Trams chairman Marlo dela Cruz is an LP officer in Pangasinan; director de Vera ran but lost as LP mayor of Calasiao, hometown of Vitangcol’s in-law Soriano. They were 2010 fundraiser-campaigners of LP president Mar Roxas, P-Noy’s running mate and later Transport Secretary. In succeeding Roxas in the Cabinet post, Abaya also became LP acting president.

Vitangcol, Abaya, and Lotilla later dropped PH Trams. In its place they contracted long dormant Global Epcom, for P63 million a month. Its authorized representative to the DOTC is still Marlo dela Cruz. Vitangcol left MRT-3 when exposed. But from PH Trams till Global Epcom today, the DOTC has paid dela Cruz P1.85 billion.

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The plunder goes on. Abaya presently is rushing to grant a P2-billion bonanza to an LP-favored conglomerate.

Exposed by hard-hitting broadcaster Ted Failon, the beneficiary is Light Rail Manila Consortium that has yet to commence extending Metro Manila’s LRT-1 to Cavite. The P2 billion consists of two LRMC billings – for DOTC penalties of P1.85 billion and P143.8 million. Those are for Abaya’s agency’s failure to restore the existing LRT-1 to a state ready for extension. Consisting of Metro Pacific as majority and Ayala Corp. as minority, LRMC took over the LRT-1 only in Oct. No work has yet been started by Ayala, reportedly in charge of construction (Metro Pacific will handle the 32-year operation concession).

The matter first was exposed in Sept., part of a P7.5-billion fast break from Abaya at the time. Despite DOTC insiders affirming Abaya’s letter, the latter denied it when he learned that the copy going around was unsigned. Metro Pacific’s Manuel V. Pangilinan, as LRMC chairman, wondered why his conglomerate was to be reimbursed for work undone.

Yesterday surfaced the two LRMC billings, stamped received by the DOTC. The story was true after all, despite Abaya’s denials. Abaya has been transferring the proposed common station of the LRT-1, MRT-3, MRT-7, and MRT-9 from the long-approved SM Mall in Quezon City to the Ayala Mall side half a kilometer away.

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Metro Pacific has been offering to upgrade the MRT-3 at no cost to government. In exchange, it proposes to take over the operation at fares approximating the buses along EDSA below. Abaya has been ignoring it.

Instead, he contracted to buy 48 new coaches for P3.8 billion from an unqualified Chinese company. The prototype – “fully functional model” – that arrived last Aug. had no electric motor and electronic parts. Meaning, in breach of contract, it had not been tested for 5,000 km at different gradients, curves, and speeds at the Chinese factory.

Abaya also secretly negotiated in Oct. a P4.5-billion three-year rehab of the MRT-3 that Metro Pacific has been offering at no cost. The contract went to a Korean train company with three Filipino partners – experts in anything but railways: trading, general merchandising, plumbing. A silent partner is Abaya’s beloved LP-mate, dela Cruz.

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