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Saturday, March 30, 2024

Train firm official flees after court’s hold order

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ONE of the principal suspects in the allegedly anomalous Metro Rail Transit maintenance deal has already fled the country, three days after the Sandiganbayan issued a hold departure order against former general manager Al Vitangcol and five others.

General Manager Al Vitangcol

BI spokesperson Elaine Tan said Wilson de Vera, one of the five incorporators of the Philippine Trans Rail Management and Services Corp., left the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for San Francisco, California in the United States last Dec. 7, 2015.

Also placed in the hold departure list were Arturo Soriano, Vitangcol’s uncle-in-law; Marlo de la Cruz, Manolo Maralit, and Federico Remo, all incorporators of PH Trams.

Tan said the bureau only received a copy of the court order Monday morning. The court has also ordered the arrest of the respondents except for Vitangcol and De Vera who had earlier posted bail worth P90,000 each.

The court said that Vitangcol and the five other accused allegedly conspired with each other to award the multi-million peso MRT-3 maintenance contract to the firm allegedly owned and managed by his uncle-in-law.

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Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said Vitangcol used his power and authority being “the MRT-3 general manager/ chief end-user, head of the negotiating team, member of the Bids and Awards Committee, all in one, to dictate the proponents invited for the preliminary negotiations of the maintenance services.”

“Vitangcol intentionally hid his affinitive relationship with Soriano, which would have automatically disqualified PH Trams,” said Morales.

Meanwhile, Malacañang on Monday denied reports that the new light rail vehicles for the MRT had no engines.

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda and Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. both forwarded messages from the Department of Transportation and Communications denying allegations that the agency was involved in fundraising for the Liberal Party.

“Here’s [DoTC] Sec. [Joseph Emilio] Abaya’s reply to questions on MRT trains: ‘The contract for the new 48 LRVs provides for complete operational trains. No one in his right mind will buy train bodies only, then have the engines procured separately’,” read the message.

“What an incredible idea. In fact just to demonstrate, a second LRV arrives just before Christmas and that is a complete unit and people will see it on the rails for test runs,” said Abaya.

“It has done some test runs in Dalian and completion of test runs will be done here. So their hypothesis that we still have to procure engines is totally false. As acting President of the LP, I’m not involved in any fundraising much more in illegal fundraising,” said Abaya.

“We in DOTC just want to deliver solutions to transport problems and roll out our trains,” Abaya said.

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