Credit grabbers

The Liberal Party (LP) apparently kicked off the campaign of its Ocho Diretso ticket for the midterm elections with the statement “Our fate is in our hands,” but absurdly listed some of its achievements, which all happened under President Rody Duterte’s watch.

The LP said 2019 would give the yellow party the chance to push the fight against high prices, unjust tax increases, hunger, calamities and the traffic problem.

“Daang Matuwid’s Ocho Diretso can only do so much as resorting to stamping a yellow imprint on progress in governance achieved under Rody.

It claimed victory for the conviction of former First Lady and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos and Jovito Palparan, a retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officer accused of kidnapping University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño.

In claiming those achievements, the LP indirectly commended Rody since justice was meted during his rule and not under the six years of yellow President Noynoy Aquino.

The LP also lined up what could be its agenda for the campaigns, which include the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law the party claims to have resulted in the increase in prices, the removal of Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, former Sen. Bong Revilla’s plunder acquittal and the killings of Rep. Rodel Batocabe, priests, mayors and “regular folk.”

It also cited in its “Win” column Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV’s eluding detention due to the voiding of his amnesty from rebellion and coup d’etat cases.

The LP indeed would have to look elsewhere from the administration of Noynoy Aquino for something to crow about since all the party did was to exploit his rule for gains.

The MRT-3 fiasco, for instance, had turned out to be a party hit job.

Former spokesman of Rody Harry Roque said he has a whistle-blower who can attest to the plunder of Metro Rail Transit Line-3 (MRT-3) through the Pangasinan group which connived with former officials of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) under Noynoy that resulted in the frequent breakdowns of the system prior to Rody’s term.

In June last, yellow-friendly retired Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales sought graft charges on only one LP kingpin, Jun Abaya.

Much earlier, the Ombudsman complaint on MRT-3 was limited to former general manager Al Vitangcol who appeared to be a designated LP scapegoat.

The LP pointman in the mess was Wilson de Vera, a party member who ran in Calasiao, Pangasinan and whom former Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar alleged to have actually asked him for $30 million on behalf of Vitangcol for a contract to supply MRT-3 coaches.

Commission on Audit (CoA) reports of the MRT-3 showed that the degradation of the rail system began with the poor management under the group of Robert Sobrepeña, a known business associate of former President Fidel Ramos, who set up the Metro Rail Transit Corp.

(MRTC) that won the Build-Operate-Transfer contract for MRT-3 in 1996.

In a 2015 report, the CoA castigated the DoTC and sought from it the legal basis for taking the responsibility in securing the maintenance service provider for MRT-3.

The CoA said DoTC assumed the responsibility in October 2012 in securing the maintenance service provider even though the Built-Lease-Transfer (BLT) agreement provides that this should be the job of the MRTC of Sobrepeña.

CoA cited records showing that after the contract ended with maintenance provider Sumitomo Corp, then Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya approved a negotiated contract with PH TRAMS-CB and T Joint Venture as the new maintenance provider on 19 October 2012 and since then continued to act as procuring entity for MRT-3 and no longer compelled MRTC to abide by the BLT.

Rychtar implicated several relatives of Noynoy, including his sister Ballsy, in the scandal but no investigation was ever conducted, except for perfunctory friendly hearings in Congress.

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

After negotiations with Rychtar failed, the P3.8-billion contract for 48 new MRT coaches, which Inekon offered to supply, was awarded to CNR Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co. of China.

Those were the Dalian coaches that current Department of Transportation officials needed to retrofit to be made usable.

Daang Matuwid’s Ocho Diretso can only do so much as resorting to stamping a yellow imprint on progress in governance achieved under Rody.