THE Office of the Ombudsman filed on Friday two counts of graft raps against the former Metro Rail Transit Line 3 general manager Al Vitangcol before the Sandiganbayan over alleged attempt to extort $30 million from the Czech firm Inekon Group.
Also sued was Wilson de Vera, incorporator of Philippine Trans Rail Management and Services Corp.
In 2012, De Vera advised the Inekon Group officers to give Vitangcol $30 million to be able to bag the contract to supply MRT trains under Lot 1 of the MRT-3 capacity expansion project.
The amount was later reduced to $2.5 million.
The second case involved Vitangcol’s supposed pressuring Inekon Group to enter into a 60-40 sharing agreement with PhilTrams.
The maintenance contract was later awarded to a joint venture of Comm Builders and Technology Philippines Corporation and PH Trams.
A bail of P60,000 for each case was recommended for the provisional liberty of Vitangcol and De Vera.
Former Czech ambassador Josef Rychtar and Inekon board chairman Josef Husek are two of the government prosecutor’s witnesses.