Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Partylist Rep. Jericho Nograles today said that a “payola” and commission system has allowed the existence of patently illegal and invalid government deals like the P3.8Billion MRT3 maintenance contract that was given in favor of Busan Universal Rail Inc. without any bidding. Anomalous shady
Nograles said that the Office of the Ombudsman should start looking at the intricate system of corruption that enabled BURI to corner the MRT3 maintenance service contract despite glaring discrepancies on the contract itself and BURI’s sloppy services.
“I have received reports on an alleged payola scheme of past and present government officials that made this fake contract possible. I am in the process of verifying these facts and will expose them in the appropriate time and venue but I really think that the Ombudsman should also take the initiative to investigate this large-scale corruption that put the MRT3 in a terrible mess,” Nograles said.
According to Nograles, since the Commission on Audit has already declared that the MRT3-BURI contract is non-existent and therefore invalid, the millions of public funds that were already paid to BURI should be returned to the government.
“COA has issued several Notices of Suspension on the payments made to BURI. According to the COA, BURI has no legal personality to collect payments from the DOTr’ and, therefore, should return the money,” Nograles said.
Nograles admits though that it may be impossible for BURI to return all the funds disbursed to them due to corruption.
“We are investigating and verifying if some personalities received bribes, commissions, campaign funds from this group. Paano nila singilin mga yun?BURI May have also given commissions to past and present officials for every payment made to them,” Nograles said.
And now that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) under Secretary Arthur Tugade has already terminated BURI’s contract for the maintenance of MRT3, Nograles said that transportation officials should now act with haste in finding long-term solutions to the problems of the Metro Rail Transit 3.
“Whatever should be best for the system must be executed immediately, so long as it is within the legal parameters and not repeat the mistakes of the cancelled relationship with BURI,” said Nograles, who led the crusade to expose the anomalies of BURI’s maintenance contract with the MRT3.
The DOTr formalized the cancellation of the P3.81-billion BURI contract two weeks ago but this has yet to solve the relentless glitches and breakdowns that has hounded the 18-year old light rail system for the past several years.
Nograles said that while it is true that repairing the MRT and reducing glitches and breakdowns is a colossal task, this is not impossible considering that the older LRT system was pretty much like the MRT3 before it’s rehabilitation.
“The DOTr can solicit help from the private sector regarding the MRT3’s woes. The LRT system is running with minimal problems so if that is a working formula, why not replicate it? I think that the DOTr should use the LRT experience in its effort to rehabilitate LRT,” he said.
There are two LRT lines, line 1 and line 2. Line 1, which roughly has the same ridership as MRT3, has been operational since 1984, making it 15 years older than the latter. Line 2, which typically carries half as much passengers, is the newest of the three, having been launched in 2003.
The DOTr has said that it would be taking over the maintenance chores of the MRT3 following the BURI debacle. (HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES)
