After suing Sumitomo, gov’t hiring it for MRT-3
GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star) |
Updated February 5, 2018 - 12:00am

xxx

DOTr’s complaint against Sumitomo’s poor maintenance work is little known in the Philippines. It was filed in Singapore by DOTr Sec. Joseph Abaya on May 31, 2016, a month before leaving office.

Present Sec. Arthur Tugade is continuing the case. DOTr pays tens of millions of dollars, or hundreds of millions of pesos, for foreign lawyers. The legal fees are taken from Filipino taxpayers, who will also shoulder the loan from Japan to hire Sumitomo.

The case is in arbitration at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, based in the island-state. Proceedings of the UN-CITL are strictly confidential. It is talked about only in whispers at DOTr.

xxx

Sources say Abaya revived the arbitration at the 11th hour to cover his tracks. He and predecessor Mar Roxas had caused Sumitomo’s sudden removal in Oct. 2012. It was replaced by a series of unqualified, inept, undercapitalized outfits: PH Trams, then Global Epcom, and lastly Busan Universal Railway Inc. (BURI). Behind all three were Liberal Party mates of Abaya and Roxas, who served as LP presidents.

At least P3.5 billion was paid to the three LP companies from 2012 to 2017. They only took the money but did not maintain MRT-3, overhaul the trains, or buy necessary parts and components. Insiders say they even used up $17 million (P850 million) in parts and equipment left behind by Sumitomo in 2012.

Records show there were glitches during Sumitomo’s time, but minor and infrequent compared to the LP contractors and the present. It fielded up to 21 trains at five-minute intervals, serving 560,000 riders. Although MRTC got Sumitomo under a build-lease-transfer scheme, DOTr directly paid the Japanese $1.2 million to $1.4 million a month. In suing MRTC, Abaya in effect also sued the government, which in 2011, had taken over ten of its 15 board seats.

Sumitomo was the single point of responsibility to repair all subsystems and procure all parts. It supposedly charged little but staked its reputation in MRT-3 in order to bag other train contracts in Asia and America.

<snipped>