There's so much hoopla on the ban of fireworks, but last Christmas Eve the noisemakers were alive and well, exploding their pyrotechnics at the strike of midnight. As the Department of Health reported in the Philippine Star, there were 81 injuries recorded on Christmas Day. Hmmm, despite all the warnings against the use of firecrackers, this is something that we can expect this coming New Year's Eve celebration. At least to our nation's credit, we are not getting any terror alert.
However there was that ambush by the New People's Army against a mercy mission by the Armed Forces of the Philippines where two soldiers from the 546th Engineering Battalion bringing relief goods to the victims of Typhoon "Nona" were killed. This happened after the Communist Party of the Philippines issued their unilateral ceasefire for the Christmas season. So much for that ballyhooed ceasefire which the NPAs do not even honor it themselves.
It is for this reason that I urge the Armed Forces of the Philippines to go on an all-out assault against all known enclaves of the NPAs in Samar, in Surigao, Compostela Valley, in Negros island, and in Northern Luzon. President Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III has just been too "soft" against the communist insurgency because many of their leaders are consider his friends and the friends of his cabinet secretaries.
If we made a list of how many Filipino soldiers have died in the 2015, I'm sure that the average is two soldiers dead per month fighting the communist insurgency. With the AFP now given new helicopters, ships, and new arms by the Aquino administration, it just makes me wonder why the NPAs can still ambush our soldiers, with impunity especially those who are on a relief mission.
If indeed the AFP has been militarily strengthened, then I dare them turn the tables around and start ambushing the NPAs in their own territories, which they claim to control. This is one of the serious problems of the Philippines today where armed groups like the NPA continue to roam the countryside killing unsuspecting soldiers in a war that cannot be won by the communists because their ideology is already considered a passé.
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Reading some news reports in the past week, I came upon a report where the Department of Transportation and Communications awarded without public bidding a P3.81 billion long-term maintenance contract for the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 to Busan Transportation Corp. Edison Development & Construction, Tramat Mercantile, Inc. and Castan Group, a Korean-Filipino consortium who won this deal.
My understanding of this report is that they start working on January 5, 2016 on the maintenance of the poorly maintained MRT-3, where the previous group that maintained the MRT was approved by former MRT General Manager Al Vitangcol who is now facing graft charges due to the fact that the previous contractor had no prior experience in maintaining subway rail systems.
So why did this long-term contract not go through a public bidding? Apparently the DOTC said that the Government Procurement Policy Board unanimously approved the decision to proceed with the negotiated procurement pursuant to Republic Act 9184, which was also approved by the Department of Justice and the National Economic and Development Authority, which is chaired by President Aquino because of the "emergency" or urgency nature of this contract.
The DOTC explained the urgency of the railway's maintenance requirements, caused by wear and tear. Come now, is this really an emergency purchase? If you ask me, for sure many pundits would agree with me, that it is the DOTC's fault in allowing a maintenance contractor without prior experience that resulted to more wear and tear of the railway of the MRT. In short, they created their own emergency for allowing this deal to be approved and now they were forced to bid out a new contract.
If you ask me, this contract should be sent to the Office of the Ombudsman for the simple reason that there really is no emergency at the MRT at all, but the DOTC officials are merely taking advantage of Republic Act 9184 so they could declare this humongous P3.81 billion deal without going through a public bidding. So the next question is who are the officers of Busan Transportation Corp. Edison Development & Construction, Tramat Mercantile, Inc. and Castan Group that Korean-Filipino consortium who won this deal? Are they helping fund the campaign of the Liberal Party for the 2016 Presidential elections in return for winning this deal? Abangan!
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.