Why can’t DOTr just return Dalian trains?

The two heads of Congress, Senate President Koko Pimentel and House Speaker Bebot Alvarez, have spoken. Those inoperative MRT-3 trains must be returned to China and the government’s money retrieved.

Yet the Dept. of Transportation still is paying a German adviser P43 million for three months to say the same thing. Is it risking the ire of Congress – and its future budget allocations – in delaying the inevitable?

Alvarez pointed up a major defect of Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp. Its 48 coaches were delivered to MRT-3 without the requisite signaling. DOTr had to spend P329 million for Bombardier of Canada to install the same on-board component like in the original 73 Czech coaches. That’s to make them all interoperable. The signaling electronically controls train speeds, and automatically brakes them to avert collisions. The missing signaling was a major breach of the P3.8-billion contract, a reason to rescind it under procurement laws.

Pimentel cited another flaw. Each coach is 3.3 tons overweight. Instead of the specified 46.3 tons maximum dry weight, they are 49.6 tons, or seven percent heavier. The tolerable variance is only three percent, transport engineers say. DOTr could have easily asked from Germany’s TUV-Rheinland before awarding the P43-million inspection deal, or from the Swedish bidding rival. Each Chinese train is to consist of four coaches; meaning the combined overweight would be 13.2 tons per run. Those Chinese trains would crush the new tracks that DOTr presently is bidding out for P1.6 billion. That’s another reason to scrap the contract and take back the government’s money, Pimentel said.

Three other breaches justify a misdeal. One, five centimeters longer than specified in the front and back, the Dalian coaches do not match the existing multimillion-peso inspection platform at the MRT-3 depot. If not elevated on that platform, the coaches can never be properly checked and repaired. Two, again contrary to specs, a design flaw in the bogey frame bars technicians from properly inspecting and maintaining the wheels. This would make the trains unsafe at any speed. Lastly, the 48 coaches arrived many months late. The Commission on Audit had told past DOTr chief Joseph Abaya about that grave contract violation.

Ever since the coaches started arriving in Oct. 2015 to mid-2017, no MRT-3 manager has dared to sign acceptance, much more certify compliance. As exposed in this column since 2015, the first two prototypes, or supposedly fully functional models, arrived without motors if not disassembled. That meant they hadn’t been tested at the Dalian factory, as required, for safety, durability, and reliability. Test-runs should have been made for 5,000 kilometers, about ten ManilaBaguio-Manila round trips. Those testruns should have been at varying speeds, gradients, curves, and weather conditions. Emergencies should have been simulated, with the auto-brakes working, the autodoors opening, the air-cons continuing, lights turning on, and alarms triggering. Each coach should have been checked for water leaks.

The 48 inoperative coaches are occupying precious space at the MRT-3 depot in Quezon City and the sister LRT-1’s garage in Manila.

Aside from the P329 million for the missing signaling, now wasted, the government had advanced 15 percent, or P570 million, of the P3.8 billion purchase price. The government must demand the P899 million back.

Abaya and Usec. Rene Limcaoco led the Dalian purchase in 2013. The broker, one Eugene Rapanut, was later the managing director of Busan Universal Railway Inc. (BURI), MRT-3’s maintenance contractor in Jan. 2016 to Oct. 2017. DOTr terminated BURI’s P3.8-billion contract due to failure to repair the coaches, replace spare parts, and field at least 20 three-coach trains during peak hours.

It’s so hard to rescind a contract from which officials already took kickbacks.

Former MRT-3 general manager Al S. Vitangcol has sworn before the courts that there was a five-percent kickback, or P190 million, in the P3.8-billion Dalian purchase. He also alleged that Rapanut was at the time an officer in Ilocos Sur of the Liberal Party, of which Abaya was president. They have denied any wrongdoing. Sen. Grace Poe, investigating MRT-3 anomalies, has called for the indictment of the conspirators.

Pimentel said DOTr must waste no more time in returning the Dalian coaches and ordering better ones from a competent maker. The longer the delay, the worse misery of 560,000 daily commuters who depend on MRT-3. Only 30 of the original 73 Czech coaches are running due to dilapidation. MRT-3 suffers two to three breakdowns per day, like with BURI. The 48 new Chinese coaches could have saved the day, had they not turned out to be as messy. Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882AM).