MANILA, Philippines — Former Department of Transportation (DOTr) officials will be invited to a Senate investigation into the “unusable” PHP3.8-billion coaches of the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3), Sen. Grace Poe said Wednesday.
Poe filed Senate Resolution No. 355 that seeks to look into the newly delivered coaches built by Chinese manufacturer Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co.
The DOTr deemed the coaches inoperative because these were incompatible with MRT-3’s signaling system.
To be invited are former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, former MRT General Manager Roman Buenafe, and other officials involved in the purchase of the coaches.
Also invited are current DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade and Undersecretary for Rails Cesar Chavez.
Poe said that she wanted answers to why the previous administration had allegedly failed to check the compatibility of the design of the trains.
“There’s something that they (past Transport officials) didn’t do that’s why these things aren’t compatible… The parts that they ordered aren’t even compatible with each other,” Poe said.
She also called for an inquiry into MRT-3’s existing maintenance contract with a Filipino-Korean joint venture, Busan Universal Rail Inc. that started maintenance and restoration works in January 2016 on the aging transit system, which has been operating since 2000.
The senator said that while it was not unusual to have train parts from different countries, the delivery should have the complete package.
“Ang mismong kaha o ‘yong tren mismo gawa sa China, ‘yong signaling system gawa sa South Korea, at ‘yong makina gawa sa Germany,” said Poe.
“So kung sasabihin mo, ‘yan ang malaking chop-chop di ba? Kung saan-saan galing.”
[The train was made in China, the signaling system was made in South Korea and the engine was made in Germany. So you can say that’s a big cho-chop. The parts came from different places],” Poe said.
