Metro Rail Transit general manager Al Vitangcol III. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines鈥擱elieved Metro Rail Transit (MRT-3) General Manager Al Vitangcol III said he was not duty-bound to find out if the bidders for the MRT are related to him or not.
Vitangcol made the statement after it was found out that a director in a winning bidder for an MRT project is the uncle of his wife.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not my duty to disclose. It鈥檚 the duty of the bidder to disclose,鈥� he said at the sidelines of the hearing by the committee on good government and public accountability in the House of Representatives聽on Tuesday.
A newspaper column bared that one of the director-incorporator of winning bidder Phil Trams, Arturo Soriano, is Vitangcol鈥檚 uncle-in-law.
Vitangcol was relieved from his post by Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya for failing to declare his relationship with Soriano.
The embattled official said he did not disclose his familial relationship with a bidder because Soriano was no longer part of the project at the time it was awarded.
Soriano divested his shares in Phil Trams after Vitangcol told him it was not proper to have a role in the project, Vitangcol said.
Asked to explain why he does not have the duty to ascertain if bidders are related to him, Vitangcol said: 鈥淜ung ikaw, lahat ba ng kamag-anak mo, alam mo ang ginagawa nila? (How about you? Do you know the activities of your relatives?)
鈥淵ou cannot possibly monitor the activities of your relatives but they are the ones who know if they have an affinity to government. So it is their duty to disclose,鈥� Vitangcol said in Filipino.
Vitangcol maintained that there was nothing anomalous in the contract awarded to Phil Trams, which was in a joint venture with CB&T, for the maintenance deal.
鈥淚t was done in the proper manner. It was above board, transparent. There was no hanky-panky here,鈥� Vitangcol said of the almost half a billion peso project for MRT maintenance.
Vitangcol was also dragged in an alleged extortion try on Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar, who claimed that Vitangcol鈥檚 envoy Wilson De Vera demanded $30 million from the Czech train supplier Inekon group for them to bag the contract for additional MRT coaches.
Vitangcol denied being involved in the extortion try. It was discovered that De Vera has left for the United States with his family.
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