UNA: OMB should dig deeper into MRT mess

An official of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) chided the Office of the Ombudsman for not delving deeper into the controversies surrounding the problematic Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT-3) system.

In particular, UNA Secretary-General Jose Virgilio “JV” Bautista finds it fishy that Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales exonerated Aquino Cabinet Secretaries Mar Roxas and Joseph Abaya in the filing of graft charges in connection with MRT-3’s supposedly anomalous maintenance contract with Philippine Trans Rail Management and Services Corp. (PH Trams).

Indicted over the weekend were former MRT-3 General Manager Al Vitangcol III and five incorporators from PH Trams who worked together to seal the “shady” $1-million per month train maintenance deal.

Without public bidding, PH Trams, a company of Vitangcol’s uncle-in-law, bagged the maintenance contract in October 2012, Bautista noted.

Still, the UNA claimed that Vitangcol is merely a scapegoat and that Liberal Party (LP) heavyweights Roxas (of the Department of the Interior and Local Government) and Abaya (Department of Transportation and Communication) should face the music as well.

“Scapegoat lang si Vitangcol. It was Roxas and Abaya who screwed up the DOTC and made the MRT as its milking cow. The daily ordeals every train passenger is experiencing are clearly the results of the PH Trams fiasco – pero bakit si Vitangcol lang ang pinagdiskitahan? (Why are they solely picking on Vitangcol?)” Bautista said.

Abaya, a former member of the House of Representatives (HOR) like Bautista, is the current president of the LP. His predecessor as both president of the party and as DOTC secretary is Roxas.

Roxas, the rumored administration bet in the 2016 presidential polls, served as Transportation chief from July 4, 2011 to Oct. 18, 2012.