MANILA: The Czechs are fuming. One of their companies, Inekon, has been blacklisted by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), barred from bidding to supply trains for the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT 3).
The blacklist followed a meeting at the DOTC in July last year, during which, one of those present alleged, department officials asked the Inekon Group executives for $30m if they wanted the supply contract. Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar, who accompanied the Inekon delegation to the DOTC, reportedly advised his compatriots not to engage in corruption.
The amount was allegedly whittled down to $2.5m. When the Czechs still didn’t give in, their project proposal, first endorsed to the DOTC three years ago by the Czech government, was scuttled and the company blacklisted. The DOTC was headed at the time by Manuel Roxas II, and the department officials who met with the Czechs were his recruits. They included Jose Perpetuo “Juju” Lotilla, Rene “Timmy” Limcaoco, Catherine Gonzales and Jaime “Jim” Feliciano. All of them are still at the DOTC. Gonzales, who came in as an assistant secretary, has since been promoted to undersecretary.
When Jesse Robredo died in a plane crash and Roxas left the DOTC to take over the Department of the Interior and Local Government, his recruits were left behind, and Inekon remained barred from the MRT-3 project. Last April, Rychtar met with new DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and related details of the July meeting.
Late last month, news reports emerged, citing unnamed sources, that President Aquino’s eldest sister Ballsy, her husband Eldon Cruz, former DOTC head Pete Prado and Steve Psinakis, a son-in-law of the late Eugenio Lopez Sr and consultant and adviser of First Philippine Holdings Corp and Benpres Holdings Corp, had asked Inekon for $30m to facilitate the contract. The Philippine star
