The $30-million extortion attempt allegedly took place way back in July 2012. Reports about the purported shakedown began coming out in 2013. But it took another four years before the Office of the Ombudsman finally indicted before the Sandiganbayan a key suspect in the alleged shakedown of Czech train supplier Inekon Group.
Even as former Metro Rail Transit 3 general manager Al Vitangcol III was arraigned the other day, questions persisted about why he was charged only with graft instead of plunder, when the amount involved is more than P50 million.
The extortion accusations were hurled by the former ambassador of the Czech Republic, and diplomats do not make such moves lightly. A congressional investigation was conducted, naming the personalities involved. Yet from the start, critics sensed reluctance on the part of the Office of the Ombudsman to conduct a thorough probe on the scandal that involves Vitangcol, his uncle-in-law and members of the Liberal Party in Pangasinan.
There is a separate graft case involving the same individuals, this time over the award without public bidding of a multimillion-dollar contract for the maintenance of the MRT 3. The ombudsman belatedly included the official who signed the contract with PH Trams, former transport secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, after Vitangcol protested that the final approval for the deal was given by his boss. This probe has crawled along like the extortion case.
Meanwhile, commuters take the MRT 3 at their own risk. Those periodic MRT breakdowns could one day worsen into a fatal accident. The ombudsman must not wait for such a disaster to occur before speeding up action on the MRT cases.
In recent months, several graft cases against local politicians have been dismissed by the courts, which cited the “undue delay” in the filing of the cases by the Office of the Ombudsman. The ombudsman has protested, but its best response it to speed up its work while at the same time seeking more personnel and resources from the Duterte administration, which has vowed to give priority to the battle against corruption. Waiting three to four years to indict the accused in court even in a celebrated case is truly justice delayed.