By Aurea Calica and Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star)
Vitangcol
MANILA, Philippines - Metro Rail Transit 3 general manager Al Vitangcol III has been placed under investigation for failing to declare that an in-law was an official of a company that won the bidding for a P517-million maintenance contract of MRT trains, President Aquino said yesterday.
Vitangcol resigned after Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya relieved him of his post on Monday.
Ironically, Vitangcol was forced to give up his job, not by the extortion allegations leveled against him by outgoing Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar that he denied, but by reports that an uncle of his wife was an incorporator of a company that had won a contract for the maintenance of MRT-3.
Aquino distanced himself from Vitangcol to allow an impartial probe as well as a review of the maintenance contract.
“Out of curiosity, who is Vitangcol in my inner circle? He looks vaguely familiar but I don’t really know him that well. I let my secretaries decide as to whom they want to work with,” Aquino told reporters while attending the 116th anniversary of the Philippine Navy in Naval Station Carlito Cunanan in Palawan.
On midnight of Monday, Aquino said Abaya had informed him through a text message that Vitangcol was relieved and replaced by Light Rail Transit Authority administrator Honorito Chaneco in an acting capacity.
“Bottom line... they discovered that he had a relative by affinity involved with a company that got the maintenance contract. Let’s review the maintenance contract. It was formally held by a Japanese company and we felt that it was very exorbitant. So there was a bidding and there was a company that won. That’s as far as I recall about that particular issue,” Aquino said.
The President said Abaya had received word that Vitangcol was resigning but had yet to receive a copy of the letter.
“Be that as it may, there is an investigation... I keep telling everybody anything we enter into must be beyond anybody’s reproach. So, I’m sure Secretary Abaya will take... upon discovery of this fact... all the necessary steps to ferret out the truth,” Aquino said.
The STAR columnist Jarius Bondoc, in his column on Monday, exposed the alleged irregularities in the bidding and award of the contract.
“I was first relieved, but I have decided to resign. I have asked my staff to transmit my resignation letter to Secretary Abaya’s office this morning,” Vitangcol told the House of Representatives good government committee chaired by Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez.
On questioning by Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Dasmariñas City in Cavite, the resigned official said his resignation was not irrevocable.
“But I have no intention of going back to my job,” he said.
The Rodriguez committee is looking into the Rychtar accusations. In its hearing yesterday, it voted to inquire as well into the award of the MRT-3 maintenance contract worth P517 million.
The Czech ambassador was a no-show in the inquiry for the third time. He asked to be excused, since his tour of duty is ending in the coming days.
Abaya, who attended the hearing, said he has not seen Vitangcol’s resignation letter, saying he went straight from his house to attend the hearing.
Abaya said he would have to forward the letter to the Office of the President, “since Vitangcol is a presidential appointee.”
He said the resignation “will be effective upon its acceptance by the President.”
“Meanwhile, since legally GM Vitangcol is still part of our agency, he is on some sort of floating status,” he added.
Getting proof
Asked about the possibility of Vitangcol getting charged before the ombudsman, Aquino said as of now, they would wait for proof to back the allegations against him.
“Then the proof, it has to be appreciated by the ombudsman. We are being too hasty here,” he said.
Aquino said that as much as he wanted to “fast forward” everything, there were processes to be followed.
Resorting to short cuts, Aquino said, might result in a mistrial or getting the person off the hook.
Aquino stressed bringing a half-baked case before the ombudsman or the Sandiganbayan could only absolve the accused and save them from double jeopardy.
“And we don’t do that,” he said.
Vitangcol was also accused of trying to extort $30 million from Czech company Inekon in July of 2012 in the presence of Rychtar.
This time, Vitangcol allegedly awarded the maintenance contract for MRT trains to PH Trams with Arturo Soriano as incorporator-director, reportedly the chief accountant of Pangasinan and brother of the mother of Vitangcol’s wife.
Wilson de Vera, a businessman, allegedly acted as a middleman for Vitangcol in the deal.
De Vera said he is ready to defend himself on the allegations.
“Why should I hide? There is no case filed against me,” he said.
“I am not in hiding. I have my sworn affidavit executed with a consul in San Francisco,” De Vera said from the US.
De Vera added that the ongoing committee hearing in the House is not the proper venue to discuss the allegations against him as the alleged middleman of Vitangcol.
At the House hearing, Abaya referred to Bondoc’s column and decided to replace the MRT-3 chief upon learning of the “reported prohibited relationship” between Vitangcol and PH Trams.
Abaya said he inquired from the bids and awards committee (BAC) of his department and was informed the panel was not told of such a relationship.
He added that government procurement rules required that this relationship should have been disclosed.
“Clearly, the DOTC followed the procedures laid out in the Procurement Law. There was no closed-door negotiation, there was no lack of track record on the part of the winning bidder,” Abaya explained.
“We promised that we would be transparent, so we made full disclosure to Congress. We at the DOTC have nothing to hide, and are as interested as anyone else in uncovering irregularities, if indeed there were any,” he stressed.
“Safety is always our priority. That is our commitment to the public. We resorted to the simplified emergency bidding procedure so as not to compromise passenger safety,” he added.
The Vitangcol connection
DOTC undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla, who is BAC chairman, was questioned extensively on why his panel endorsed the joint venture company formed by PH Trams and CB&T.
Lotilla admitted that PH Trams was incorporated only in August 2012, two months before the award of the maintenance contract, and that it had a paid-up capital of only P625,000.
He further admitted the firm, by itself, would not have qualified for the P517-million job, and that it was CB&T that had the finances and technical capability.
Lotilla, however, explained they had to look at the joint venture and not the individual partners. He later told reporters that the government is not supposed to inquire into the private arrangements of bidders.
Lotilla said he and other BAC members learned of the relationship of Vitangcol with Soriano only from the newspapers.
He said they awarded the maintenance contract less than a week before the previous contract with another service provided ended.
The MRT-3 maintenance contract awarded to CB&T was made to ensure the safety of its passengers.
“We had to make do with the time we had since MRT Corp. (MRTC) was late in informing us that they would not renew the maintenance contract. Secretary Abaya would not have let the trains run and endanger the safety of passengers without a maintenance service provider,” he said.
MRTC is the private owner of MRT, the mass rail line along EDSA.
On questioning, Vitangcol said he did not inform the BAC, of which he was a member, that Soriano was his wife’s uncle “because Mr. Soriano had already divested his shares in PH Trams sometime in September, before the contract was awarded.”
Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas said based on Lotilla’s and Vitangcol’s testimony, it would appear that the joint venture of PH Trams and CB&T won the huge maintenance contract because of the “connection” between the MRT-3 chief and Soriano.
“This divestment, if it indeed happened after the corporation was formed, was taken to avoid the graft issue,” he said.
Rep. Antonio Tinio of party-list group Alliance of Concerned Teachers said it would seem that PH Trams “acted only as a broker.”
Rep. Rodel Batocabe of Ako Bicol said the fact that the Soriano firm was just a two-month-old company with small capital should have served as a red flag for Lotilla and the BAC.
Abaya, who signed the maintenance contract, said he was not aware of its possible defect. He said he relied on the endorsement of the Lotilla committee.
He said the contract was good for six months and was extended for three months.
Abaya added that he was willing to be investigated for signing the contract.
Timing
Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco questioned the timing of the resignation of Vitangcol, on the eve of the congressional inquiry.
Tiangco said there is something fishy about the flip-flopping statements made by Abaya with regard Vitangcol’s relief as MRT-3 general manager.
He said there is a big question behind Vitangcol’s sudden resignation in the light of the ongoing investigation into the alleged attempt to extort $30 million from train builder Inekon in the presence of the Czech ambassador.
At the height of the $30-million Inekon controversy, Tiangco pointed out Vitangcol refused to step down from office despite being directly tagged by Rychtar as one of the personalities behind the controversial MRT-3 expansion program contract.
“There’s something fishy to Vitangcol’s sudden relief from MRT-3... there might be some reason behind his resignation. It may be a game plan to muzzle him in order to save a bigger fish,” Tiangco said.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), on the other hand, has already submitted its report on the alleged extortion attempt.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the NBI submitted its final report on the controversy last Monday, which she will submit to President Aquino.
De Lima, however, refused to reveal the details of the NBI probe that took nine months from the time the extortion attempt was revealed.
A source said the NBI’s legal team has finished reviewing the initial findings of the bureau’s Interpol Division, where Vitangcol was reportedly cleared of the shakedown allegations.
Last February, NBI said they found no sufficient evidence to charge Vitangcol in the allegations of extortion by Rychtar.
The source explained that at the time, evidence thus far gathered against Vitangcol showed allegations against him were without proof or corroboration.
“No one corroborated the statement that Vitangcol ordered through a phone call to ask for money,” the source said.
The phone call the source referred to was the one allegedly made by De Vera while he and the Inekon officials were at Rychtar’s residence in Forbes Park, Makati on July 9, 2012.
The source said none of the Inekon officials corroborated the claims made by Inekon board chairman Josef Husek in his affidavit to the NBI last October.
None of them was also able to prove that De Vera received orders from Vitangcol over the phone that night, the source added.
The source said Vitangcol was cleared as far as the NBI-Interpol is concerned, unless a new witness or evidence is found. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Lawrence Agcaoili, Edu Punay, Eva Visperas, Aie Balagtas-See
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