Palace to VP Robredo: ‘Past government destroyed the MRT’

The palace said that they found the remarks of the Vice President ‘unfortunate’.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Friday contradicted the recent statement of Vice President Leni Robredo that Duterte administration is using the former officials of Aquino administration as a ‘scapegoat’ to conceal the shortcomings of the government in dealing with the poor condition of the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3).

Roque said that the technical glitches in the MRT-3 are cumulative problems inherited from the from the past administration, adding the filing of the complaint against official of the previous administration was to make them accountable.

“The Administration has faced the MRT-3 mess squarely. The President has even apologized over a recent train mishap and transport officials admitted that while they cannot solve the problems overnight they are working double time to restore the convenience and reliability of the MRT-3 by getting a proven maintenance firm and buying needed parts,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

“However, we cannot deny the fact that these are cumulative problems that the administration inherited and the long-suffering commuters of Metro Manila have known for years how the past government destroyed the MRT.”

The palace said that they found the remarks of the Vice President ‘unfortunate.’

“With all due respect to Vice President Robredo, the MRT-3 issue is not about covering up shortcomings,” he said.

Robredo’s statement came after the filing of the plunder complaint against former Cabinet members of the Aquino administration, including former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio “Jun” Abaya, over the alleged irregularities in the maintenance contract with Busan Universal Rail Inc. (Buri).

“These officials facilitated the negotiated procurement of long-term maintenance contracts to Buri, which per the Supplemental Complaint Affidavit filed by the DOTr, ‘turned the DOTC as a bottomless cash cow entering into one anomalous procurement project,’” Roque said.

Robredo, who is an ally of the former President Benigno Aquino, said on Thursday that the filing of cases should be based on evidence and credible data.

“Ako, mahirap magparatang, pero sa akin, kapag may nagkasala, tama lamang na sampahan ng kaso. Iyong atin lang ninanais, sana iyong pagsampa ng kaso ay base sa datos na maayos. Hindi siya ginagawang dahilan para lang maghanap ng scapegoat para sa mga bagay na hindi nagagawa [For me, it’s hard to make accusations, but when someone committed irregularities, it is right to file a case against them. But what we want is that the filed cases are based on credible data. It should not be used to find a scapegoat for the things they did not do],” Robredo said in a media interview in Caloocan City.