DAVAO CITY – A partylist lawmaker today questioned the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) maintenance contract awarded by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to a Korean company without bidding.
The DOTC said it awarded the P3.81-billion maintenance contract to the joint venture of Busan Transportation Corp., Edison Development & Construction, Tramat Mercantile Inc., TMICorp. Inc. and Castan Corp.
In a statement on Thursday DOTC said the group “will fulfill the general maintenance requirements for three years” beginning January 5. This is set to improve the services of MRT-3, said the DOTC.
However, Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares said the DOTC is the deal is “questionable”.
“The DOTC is saying that there is an emergency to fix the problems, but they are not saying that they are the ones who caused it. This questionable deal should be probed and I hope that the DOTC is not trying to pull another fast one on MRT commuters. We have to check the deal and ensure that there is no hidden fare hike,” said Colmenares.
Colmenares, in a statement said, last year a P65-billion Light Rail Transit (LRT1) extension deal was awarded by the DOTC to a consortium led by the Ayala-Pangilinan group “which explicitly include fare hikes for LRT and was even used to piggyback ride the fare hike for the MRT last year”.
“Mahirap na pong magtiwala ngayon sa mga deals na bigla na lang pinalulusot ng Aquino admin lalo na ng DOTC dahil ilang beses na tayong napaso sa mga ito at tayong mga nagbabayad ng buwis ang laging pinagbabayad (It’s difficult to trust the deals that are allowed by the Aquino administration especially through DOTC because there are several incidents wherein we face problems because of these and we taxpayers are the ones who made to pay),” said Colmenares. (davaotoday.com)
