A few weeks before the bidding date, however, Sec. De Jesus resigned from his post due to health reasons. Mar Roxas was assigned as his replacement. Roxas’s first act as the new DoTC Secretary was to cancel the bidding exercise.
Roxas’s move proved to be catastrophic. In one fell swoop, not only did Roxas trash a perfectly good long term maintenance plan for both MRT-3 and LRT-1, he also left MRT-3 with no maintenance contractor. Remember, by this time, the Sumitomo contract had expired.
Realizing his mistake, Roxas scrambled to renew the Sumitomo contract on annual and six-month terms. This was a bad decision since Sumitomo (or any other maintenance contractor, for that matter) would naturally not invest in long term preventive maintenance programs given the short term nature of its contract. The rolling stocks, rails and signaling systems began to deteriorate. This is when system failures began to occur.
In October 2012, Roxas awarded the maintenance contract to a firm called PH Trams CB & T. One of PH Trams’ six incorporators-directors was Wilson T. De Vera. It will be recalled that De Vera was the man accused by the Czech Ambassador of attempting to extort $30 million from Czech train maker Inekon back in July 2012. Also among its directors were Marlo de la Cruz and Manolo M. Maralit.
By this time, Roxas was moved to the DILG and Sec. Jun Abaya took over the helm of the DoTC. Abaya’s first act was to ratify the contract of PH Trams even if the bidding process was allegedly a fluke.
The terms of PH Trams contract was problematic too.
It called for PH Trams to provide the manpower for the maintenance of MRT-3, while government was to handle the procurement of spare parts. This proved to be a bad formula considering the tedious process of government procurement.
In most cases, government could not provide the spare parts on time. This left PH Trams with no choice but to resort to remedial repair work or “band-aid solutions” to keep the trains running. This caused the entire system to deteriorate even more rapidly. This went on for three years.
In 2015, the maintenance contract was awarded to SBI CB&T a Filipino-German partnership, and then, to Busan Universal Rail, Inc. in 2016. Given the short term contracts given to these firms, neither invested in long term solutions for MRT-3. The trains deteriorated to point where they became safety hazards. This was when derailments of trains and uncoupling of cars began to occur.
With one error of judgment after another, the MRT-3 line was left in a pitiful state. Most trains were out of commission due to damage and lack of spare parts. In fact, only 13 out of 73 trains were working as of February 2015. Too, the rails were in need of rehabilitation and the signaling system needed to be replaced.
With its back against the wall, the DoTC purchased 48 new train cars from Dalian of China. The new trains were meant to augment the aging and dilapidated Czech-made units. By this time, it was 2015 and the presidential campaign was in full swing with Mar Roxas running as the administration’s candidate.
Roxas was getting a lot of flack for the MRT-3 mess. He was desperate — he needed to show the public that relief was on the way.
He had the trains delivered from Dalian even without its motor, its couplers and signaling system just to have something to show.
The public relations stunt was not enough to assuage the anger of the public over the MRT-3 mess. In many respects, it cost Roxas’s his presidential bid.