Directors ‘derail’ MRT-3 operations

Is it true that Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC) effectively “derailed” MRT-3 operations when it refused to engage a new technical maintenance provider when Sumitomo Corp.’s Maintenance Agreement expires this October 19?

According to sources, in a special board meeting held last October 3, Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPIC)-designated directors led by Marilyn Aquino and Jose Maria Lim vigorously objected to the hiring of an interim maintenance provider. Instead, they pushed for a one-year extension of the maintenance agreement with Sumitomo Corp., which the government subsidizes with $2.1 million of taxpayers’ money every month, in spite of Sumitomo’s outrageous demands that its subcontractor, TES-Philippines, be exempted from any liability or penalty in the event of train failures; and that the maintenance of the signaling and automatic fare collection systems be excluded from its present scope of work.

MRT-3 general manager Al Vitangcol III insisted that the existing maintenance agreement is disadvantageous to the government and that a revised and updated one be used, whether it’s a new agreement or merely an extension. But Aquino countered that the existing maintenance agreement should be the one used since MRTC is already familiar with its provisions, never mind that it is clearly disadvantageous to the government.

Seems Aquino is ignorant of the provisions of Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which penalizes public officers (such as the nine government-designated directors who supposedly control the MRTC board) “entering into any contract or transaction manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the government, whether or not the public officers profited or will profit thereby.”

This is probably why the board finally decided to send a letter to the Department of Transportation and Communications stating that MRTC would not accept the responsibility of engaging a new maintenance provider notwithstanding the provisions of the MRT-3 Build-Lease-Transfer (BLT) Agreement, which stipulates that it is MRTC that should be the contracting party.

In response to the letter, the DOTC invited TES-Philippines, MPIC-controlled Mierscorrail (a joint venture between Meralco Industrial Engineering Services and wannabe LRTA administrator Joseph Allan Dilay’s family owned Genials Trading and Contracting Co., Inc) and Commbuilders (the current local maintenance provider of the LRT Line 1) to submit their respective proposals to take over the maintenance of the MRT-3 line on October 19.

In a presentation to the MRTC board last August 29, Commbuilders offered to slash the maintenance cost for the MRT-3 line by 25 percent.

TES-Philippines supposedly pulled out of the competition, leaving only MPIC proxy, Mierscorrail, and Commbuilders in the bidding for MRT-3’s new maintenance contractor. It will be interesting to watch if public interest will prevail in the awarding of the new contract.

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A few more days from now, it will be All Saints’ Day again, and family members visiting their loved ones’ graves will see the living usurping the land set aside for the dead. Yes, squatters have invaded even the cemeteries, including the one reserved for our heroes, the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Former senator and now Rep. Rodolfo Biazon sounded the alarm over the invasion by squatters of the Libingan, the final resting place of former presidents, war veterans, ranking military officers, notable government officials and national artists.

“The Libingan ng mga Bayani may no longer be the resting place for deserving Filipinos and soldiers who died in the line of duty because a big portion of it is currently being occupied by informal settlers (translation: squatters),” Biazon said. Established in 1947, the national shrine is a 117-hectare military cemetery in Fort Bonifacio. An Inquirer report in 2007 said only about 16 hectares of its burial space are left.

The courts have already found a squatter guilty of violating provisions of the Urban Development and Housing Act after she “occupied the land which is classified as a national shrine.”

As of 2009, two presidents—Carlos P. Garcia and Diosdado Macapagal—and 44,000 military men, including more than 32,000 World War II veterans, were buried at the Libingan.

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Sometimes, it is the national entities themselves, government and private, that encourage squatters. The most notorious of them are, of course, the politicians who tolerate squatters because they are also voters. Just one example is the case of Maynilad, the water utility which encourages squatters in Sitio Manggahan, Bagumbong, Caloocan City.

An 81-year-old widower, Benjamin Gutierrez, complains that squatters have invaded a one-hectare property that he and a group of friends bought in 1970 in preparation for their retirement. In 2008, the Urban Poor Affairs Office in Caloocan told them that their properties were being considered for development via the Community Mortgage Program of the Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC) under which the squatters would be given the chance to buy the land under the mortgage program. The owners would be compensated by the SHFC, and the squatters would repay through monthly installments.

The owners and squatters agreed. Then Maynilad, without the knowledge of the owners, installed water connections to the squatter shanties. Now that they have water and electricity connections, the squatters refuse to join the Community Mortgage Program. They insist on illegally occupying the property—for free.