THE Department of Transportation (DOTr) must return the proprietary technical plans of rail-maintenance contractor Comm Builders & Technology Philippines (CB&T) the company submitted during the previous administration as an unsolicited proposal to fix the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3.
Roehl B. Bacar, the president of the private company, claimed the team of former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya copied the plans laid out on the proposal, and implemented them as the government’s own projects.
In a letter sent to Transportation Assistant Secretary for Procurement Gerald Chan, Bacar said his group’s “technical plans and intellectual creations have been obviously copied and studied by the previous unscrupulous officers” of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).
“In this respect and in order to protect the proprietary rights, including, but not limited to, infringement of technical expertise and most importantly intrusion of intellectual creations—schemes, bill of quantities and plans—of CB&T considering that the officers appointed by the past administration in DOTC-MRT3 refused to withdraw the same and has, in fact, used them to supply the deficiency in the services of the current maintenance provider, we thus hereby assertively request your good office to please allow us to withdraw as our right the complete records of all those bid documents,” Bacar said in his letter.
He added there is probable cause to uphold the claims of CB&T as the DOTr supposedly made arrangements with SKD Tatra, the original equipment manufacturer of spare parts of all the MRT 3 trains to provide the required parts to the current provider.
This, despite the company’s exclusive distributorship agreement with SKD.
The previous transport team implemented a P9.7-billion comprehensive program to fix the ailing train system. Included in the program is a P4.22-billion project that covers the “general overhaul” of 43 of the MRT’s trains, and total replacement of the signaling systems, as well as the three-year maintenance of the rail line.
Bacar’s group had sought to place a whole-train system under a massive transformation program to augment its capacity and to provide a safe and comfortable travel to commuters from the northern and southern corridors of Metro Manila.
The P4.64-billion proposal, submitted in February last year with German partner Schunk Bahn-und Industrietechnik, calls for the complete overhaul of the 73 light-rail vehicles of the MRT, the replacement of the rails, the upgrading of the line’s ancillary system, the upgrade of the track circuit and signaling systems, the modernization of the conveyance system, and a three-year maintenance contract.
“We are ready to help the department and Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade in the daunting challenge to fix all the problems of the MRT. But we want to do so in an open, fair and transparent manner where we will also be credited and compensated for our technical expertise and assistance to the government,” Bacar said separately.