MalacaÑang said on Sunday that the government has always told the truth about the controversial and breakdown-prone Metro Rail Transit 3.
“The government has always been open and transparent regarding issues on the MRT,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., during an interview over state-run radio station dzRB.
Coloma was reacting to calls made by Senator Francis Escudero for former MRT general manager Al Vitangcol III to reveal what he knows about the $1.5-million contract awarded for the commuter train’s maintenance in October 2012, which became the basis of the graft case filed against him.
“It is up to Mr. Vitangcol what his next move will be regarding Senator Escudero’s call,” said Coloma.
A month after the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court affirmed his indictment, Vitangcol lamented the apparent haste in resolving the case against him, insisting that it was the Department of Transportation and Communications that awarded the contract.
The controversial MRT maintenance deal with Philippine Trams Rail Management Service Corp. was allegedly “perfected” when the DoTC was headed by current Liberal Party presidential candidate Mar Roxas.
The Office of the Ombudsman also cleared Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya of any liability in the deal because he was appointed just two days before when he signed the contract.
Escudero said Vitangcol should reveal the “extent of the culpability of other DoTC officials in the anomalous contract [for which] they have left Vitangcol high and dry.”
“Mr. Vitangcol should not be afraid to speak up. Why sacrifice yourself, your career, your life, your family name when you know that there were others behind this questionable deal? He should come clean and reveal everything he knows,” Escudero said.
Vitangcol earlier said that he was made a “sacrificial lamb” and was being made to answer for the anomalies in the 10-month contract of PH Trams, whose directors included Vitangcol’s uncle-in-law.
The Ombudsman had originally named 20 DoTC officials involved in the deal but eventually charged only Vitangcol, exonerating, among others, Abaya.
Vitangcol said an emissary had promised to help him with the graft case but he has now been “dropped like a hot potato.”
The emissary, he said, went to his lawyer and gave the assurance that he would be getting help from the “principals.”
“Don’t worry because the case would eventually be dismissed in time,” Vitangcol’s lawyer quoted the emissary as saying.
According to Escudero, “no one else could wield such power and influence over Vitangcol [except] Roxas and Abaya.”
President Benigno Aquino has reiterated his trust in Abaya, whom he said will stay on as secretary until the end of his term in June.