“Morales is disposing of the cases against Noynoy and his yellow associates before retiring next month.”

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales did another midnight rescue of her yellow principals with the indictment of former Transportation Secretary Jun Abaya for graft over the P4.2-billion Metro Rail Transit-3 deal that had all the marks of a fund-raising operation.

Abaya was an obvious sacrificial token in the case to take the bullet for members of former President Noynoy Aquino’s inner circle, who are also mostly Liberal Party (LP) big guns, namely, Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, Florencio Abad, Cesar Purisima, Carlos Jericho Petilla, Mario Montejo, Voltaire Gazmin, Rogelio Singson and Arsenio Balisacan.

Morales’ recent decision was similar to the usurpation of authority charges against Noynoy on the Mamasapano tragedy when multiple homicide was the complaint, as well as usurpation of legislative powers on Noynoy and his budget secretary Butch Abad on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) scandal against the complaint of plunder.

Morales is disposing of the cases against Noynoy and his yellow associates before retiring next month.

In filing graft which is bailable, the Ombudsman cited not all of the elements of plunder (a non-bailable offense) were established in the anomalous contract.

The plunder complaint filed by the Department of Transportation (DoTr) on the inner circle of Noynoy in their capacity as members of the Government Procurement Policy Board was also dismissed “for lack of probable cause.”

Lack of probable cause and failure to establish plunder were the verdict despite the tons of documents the DoTr handed Morales on the apparent conspiracy.

Reinier Yebra, DoTr undersecretary for legal affairs and procurement, said the documents pointed to Roxas and Abaya as main conspirators in the anomaly over the MRT maintenance contract of the government with Busan Universal Rail, Inc. (BURI).

“(They) set into motion a grand scheme of turning the DoTC as a bottomless cash cow, entering into one anomalous procurement project after the other, in order to amass, accumulate and acquire ill-gotten wealth by taking advantage of their official position, authority and influence to unjustly enrich themselves at the expense and to the damage and prejudice of the Filipino people,” the DoTr complaint stated.

The DoTr informed the Ombudsman that although the contract was awarded to Busan Joint Venture in December 2015, it was an entirely different entity as Busan Universal Rail Inc., also known as BURI, which was only formed in January 2016 to implement the maintenance contract.

However, Busan Transportation Corp. only made up 4.7 percent of BURI which Yebra described as “anomalous.”

The complaint said aside from not being part of the bidding, BURI did not have the required 15 years of experience to be accepted as a maintenance provider.

Even a 2015 report of CoA also established a collusion among the yellow cabal of Noynoy similar to the conspiracy in the maintenance deal.

The CoA report cited records showing Abaya approved a negotiated contract with PH Trams as the new maintenance provider on Oct. 19, 2012 prior to BURI.

Wilson de Vera, an LP member who ran in Calasiao, Pangasinan, controlled PH Trams.

Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar in 2013 also implicated several relatives of Noynoy in the scandal, but his allegations escaped investigation except for a perfunctory hearing in Congress held when Noynoy’s allies were a dominant force in Congress.

Rychtar exposed a $30-million (P1.5 billion) extortion attempt for the awarding of a contract for the supply of train coaches. Other anomalies that rocked the MRT-3 included the awarding of billion-peso contracts without bidding, questionable fare subsidy reports, and the unused P4.5 billion MRT fund for expansion, which was diverted to the DAP.

The MRT-3 also allegedly became LP’s cash cow with LP top guns running the DoTC. Roxas was the secretary when the anomalous maintenance deal was signed.

The P3.8-billion contract for 48 new MRT coaches was eventually awarded to CNR Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co. of China. These coaches remain idle up to now since they turned out to be not compatible with the rail track.

Morales with her yellow blinders saw only Abaya and a host of minor functionaries as liable for the MRT-3 pillage, which is truly pathetic.

Accountability requires that the string of midnight selective indictments of Morales be reviewed.