INDEPENDENT presidential candidate Grace Poe has asked Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya to produce the negotiated contract between the government and the Korean-Filipino consortium that will maintain the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 for three years.
Senator Poe, the head of the Senate sub-committee on public services that is looking into the issues surrounding the MRT, wants to review the P3.8-billion contract with the consortium following Abaya’s pronouncement that Busan Transportation Corp., which operates Busan Metro in South Korea, would no longer be backing out.
“Maganda naman na hindi sila umatras kung sila lang talaga ‘yung may technical know-how, kaya lang nga po eh tingnan natin yung kontrata. Ito po ay negotiated contract and wala man lang tayong kaalam-alam kung ano ang mga probisyon ng kontrata na ‘yan,” Poe said in a radio interview.
“Sabi ko nga hanggang ngayon, hinihingi pa rin namin ‘yung kopya ng kontrata na iyan. Marami nagsasabi na, ‘yan ba ‘yung original na contract o na-revise ba iyan to make exceptions para hindi umatras ang mga Koreano?”
Busan Transportation Corp. was earlier reported to be withdrawing from the contract with the Department of Transportation and Communications because it feared facing lawsuits due to the controversial 11th-hour awarding of the contract to a consortium that includes Edison Development & Construction, Tramat Mercantile Inc., TMICorp Inc. and Castan Corp.
Of the four firms in the joint venture, only the Korean company has the technical know-how in railway maintenance. The consortium took over the maintenance work on the MRT-3’s rolling stock and signaling system on Jan. 5.
Poe said that in the previous hearings on the woeful MRT-3 operations last year, the Senate sub-committee on public services had already asked for documents from the DoTC but had not received the pertinent contracts from its officials.
She said the difficulty in securing documents such as government contracts underscored the need for the Freedom of Information Act, which the senator has been pushing for since she was elected in 2013.
“Alam mo naman yung sistema natin dito ng hustisya at byurukrasya. Nakakalungkot. Kaya dapat ipasa na nga natin yung Freedom of Information Act sapagkat kalokohan itong mga naitatagong mga ganitong bagay sa atin,” Poe said.
She said she would immediately schedule a hearing on the MRT’s maintenance when Congress resumes session on Jan. 18. But she expressed frustration that lawmakers could only do so much to correct any failings on the part of national agencies.