President Benigno S. Aquino III meets with his Cabinet Secretaries at the President’s Hall of Malacanang Monday (October 13) concerning the status of the MRT 3 maintenance. The President is concerned about negative reports he has been receiving regarding Metro Rail operations. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – Transportation Secretary Jun Abaya on Monday said the government is looking at all possibilities that could have caused Friday’s glitches at the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), including sabotage.
Abaya said it is too much of a coincidence that the glitch from the old signaling system occurred on the first day Busan Transport Corporation took over as the new MRT-3 maintenance provider.
“Quite a rare occurrence for it to drag long. So eventually it seemed like there were some tweaking of the settings on the modem that it uses because basically it’s a communication system,” Abaya said.
“Likewise GM Roman Buenafe is looking at the angle of sabotage. So we’re looking at all possibilities. But again, it was also a significant date because it was when Busan was coming in. I don’t know if somebody is trying to send a message but since that time we’re okay and Busan is slowly getting its feet well,” he added.
Friday’s MRT glitches saw thousands of commuters stranded, while several passengers were forced to get off stations and walk on the MRT railways.
Abaya also clarified there was no “hostile takeover” as claimed by the German-Filipino joint venture SBI-CBT, the MRT-3’s previous maintenance provider.
“Not true, because they were supposed to go January 4. So we knew that Busan was still clarifying not ready. We informed all maintenance providers to extend for a month because otherwise the trains would stop. All accepted. CBT and SBI had a clarification. They were saying there should be not pre-termination clause and likewise remove the actual services and delivery of spares,” he said.
“We clarified with them. We said ‘are you accepting or not.’ Eventually they wrote back that they are indeed accepting but still with clarifications. So there was a series of letters. So we weren’t sure what they were positioning for. At the end of the day, we signed Busan, we were ready to take over,” Abaya added.
The DOTC chief also defended the timing of the awarding of the P3.8-billion maintenance contract to Busan two days before Christmas Day when the previous contract did not end until January 4.
“You knew that the multi-discipline contracts will end January 4. The very first working day of the year. Would you wait till January 4 when you know there are various steps before a maintenance provider can come in? Because most likely an actual takeover will happen third week of January then you will be left with two or three weeks without maintenance, and train services would stop,” Abaya said.
With the signing of the contract, Busan will now be in charge of all maintenance concerns of the MRT-3.
Abaya said the government can cancel the contract in case Busan would fail to deliver efficient service and management. (MNS)