Guess who’s lawyering for MRT-3 contractor

Gina Lopez suggests that President Duterte himself take on the environment secretary position after her rejection by Congress. Sounds sensible. She sees in him sincerity to clean up the earth for public health and poverty uplift. Duterte has the will to fight oligarchs in pollutive and extractive industries, she says, plus integrity to shun the usual bribery that mars the office. No longer would there be Cabinet infighting over sensitive decisions on natural resources and care.

No law bars the Chief Executive taking over a Cabinet portfolio. Recent Presidents have acted as secretary of defense and of agriculture. Duterte once contemplated assuming as secretary of interior to sharpen his war on drugs.

In case Duterte heeds her proposal, Lopez volunteers to serve as undersecretary. No need for congressional consent there. More important, she already has begun to suspend dirty mines, and dismantle fish pens that choke up lakes. Stay tuned for the next episode ....

* * * Too often is it asked why, despite the many anomalies at MRT-3, nobody has been charged. Lawmakers publicly have urged Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to investigate motu propio (on her own). Citizens and groups have filed complaints.

Now comes news that Carpio-Morales’ brother is the lawyer of the commuter railway’s P3.8-billion maintenance contractor. Forthright explanations are in order. State officials must be, like Caesar’s wife, above suspicion.

The name of Lucas C. Carpio Jr. appears in an official correspondence of Busan Universal Rail Inc. (BURI). The letter, dated 27 Apr. 2017, is BURI’s reply to the Dept. of Transport’s memo about operations shutdowns since Jan. 2016. Carpio signed as having assisted in its preparation. He represents the Carpio & Bello Law Offices. The letter was circulated to the press this week.

Carpio is also the “balae,” or coparent-in-law of President Duterte. A unique Filipino kinship term, “balae” denotes that their offspring are man and wife. The Bello in the law firm’s name is Silvestre Bello III, former secretary of justice and congressman, and now Secretary of Labor. Bello is retired from the firm, its stationery states.

BURI has been in the news lately due to frequent breakdowns of MRT-3 trains, tracks, power supply, and signaling. Questioned for spotty maintenance, it has given varied explanations: summer heat, wrong wheel grease, incompatible trains and tracks.

The Senate and House of Representatives are investigating BURI’s contract and capabilities. It bagged the three-year P3.8-billion deal with no public bidding. It does not have the proper maintenance equipment, like the truing machine to restore metal wheels to circularity, so jobs out the work to a small machine shop. Due to BURI’s failure to present proofs of parts purchases, present DOTr officials have been slashing its monthly billings. Its failure to overhaul even one of 43 coaches, since Jan. 2016, has been pointed up. BURI’s principal was also the broker of a separate P3.8-billion purchase of 48 coaches from China in 2014. That principal allegedly is a Liberal Party-mate of the contract awarder, the former Transport Secretary. Delivered without the requisite signaling, the Chinese trains are inoperative.

Right after supposedly intensive checks during the Holy Week break, trains stopped due to faulty wheel bearings. One also jumped the tracks at the end station, reportedly due to wheel problem. Usec. for Railways Cesar Chavez fired off two memos on Apr. 19 to BURI authorized rep Eldonn Uy. One was on maintenance, specifically the number of service interruptions, train removals, passenger unloading; the other on the non-overhaul. A third memo was sent to the DOTr legal office, to look into rescinding in the BURI contract of the total replacement of the signaling system. The signaling is now being upgraded anyway by a separate DOTr supplier.

The reply of Carpio and Uy was also signed by BURI in-house lawyers Charles Mercado and Redentor Roque. In gist, they said that DOTr cannot scrap the maintenance contract because the “incident reports ... are not verified.” Too, that glitches had occurred under past maintenance contractors – Sumitomo Corp., then PH Trams, and Global Epcom, in 2000-2015. Age purportedly has deteriorated the trains and tracks, so BURI has been performing against the odds. There was no mention of the non-overhaul and redundant signaling.

Chavez told The STAR that the MRT3 transport division reports daily to the DOTr the operations breakdowns. The reports were among the bases of his memo to BURI. The Commission on Audit has the same records. Of glitches under the two immediate past contractors, Chavez said persons behind BURI “seem to be criticizing their own work.” A COA report indicates that MRT-3 deteriorated starting 2012. And of BURI’s lawyer, he said, “DOTr is standing on solid documents.” He wouldn’t say more, as he still has to meet the DOTr special technicallegal team about BURI’s retort.

* * * Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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Lucas Carpio is the brother of the Ombudsman and “balae” (co-parentin-law) of the President.