MANILA, Philippines—To address the problem of long lines in the Metro Rail Train 3 system, the government had considered buying second-hand rails from Spain, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya told a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
Abaya admitted this during the hearing of the Senate sub-committee on transportation after the chairman of Fil-Estate group, Roberto Sobrepeña, told the body that the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) during the past administration suggested buying second-hand trains when he was still with the MRT Consortium (MRTC).
“They had the idea that it would be cheaper if we bought second hand trains in 2007,” Sobrepeña said, responding to queries of Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero.
Metro Rail Transit Line 3
“This took us aback and we refused to actually offer the government second-hand trains. This led to a long impasse and discussions and letter-writing and I think we wrote a total of 15 letters to the DOTC with regard to this including refusing to buy second hand trains,” he said.
But Sobrepeña said the MRTC’s repeated proposals to buy additional trains and improve the MRT3 system fell on deaf ears, which prompted his group to enter into a cooperation agreement with the Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
He said the MRTC even formally wrote the DOTC to say that they were not in favor of buying hand-me-down trains.
Esudero then asked Abaya to confirm if Sobrepeña’s claim was true. But since he only assumed office in 2012, the DOTC chief then directed the department’s assistant secretary for legal affairs, Jaime Fortunato Caringal, to answer the senator’s question.
“Yes your honor, in 2007 it was a request for them to procure 30 refurbished LRVs (light rail vehicles),” Caringal said.
Asked if the DOTC made the same proposal in 2008, the official said, “Yes your honor it was a follow up to that.”
“Again, I’m not saying it’s you Secretary Abaya or Assistant Sec Caringal… why did the DOTC do this? Why would you propose that second cars be procured? What possible reason could the DOTC have?” asked Escudero.
And when no DOTC official could give him any answer, Escudero directed his question to Sobrepena if he had an inkling why the DOTC made such proposal.
“I could not understand why they asked that. We vehemently refused to even consider and discuss second hand trains with them and this led to long period of impasse with the DOTC,” Sobrepena said.
And when Escudero again asked Abaya if he was in favor of buying second-hand trains for MRT3, Abaya admitted that they had once considered accepting the second-hand rails offer from the Spanish government.
“Admittedly during my time because of the situation of the rails, there was an offer from the Spanish government for second hand rails not because we want second hand but more in the delivery…We were studying then if it was allowed but mainly to deliver a quick solution to the long lines…” Abaya said.
“They said it was ready but eventually we figured out it would be better to procure rather than go second hand,” he added.
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