{"id":122650,"date":"2017-10-10T05:27:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T09:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=122650"},"modified":"2017-10-10T05:27:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T09:27:28","slug":"poe-millions-lost-in-purchase-of-mrt-coaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/10\/poe-millions-lost-in-purchase-of-mrt-coaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Poe: Millions lost in purchase of MRT coaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_106551\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-106551\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Grace-Poe.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-106551\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Grace-Poe.jpg\" alt=\"Sen. Grace Poe. (PNA photo)\" width=\"500\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Grace-Poe.jpg 500w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Grace-Poe-300x250.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-106551\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"http:\/\/media.pna.gov.ph\/source\/Poe.jpg\">Sen. Grace Poe. (PNA photo)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The chairperson of the Senate committee on public services said that P526 million \u201cwent down the drain\u201d on the purchase of 48 China-made light rail vehicles (LRVs) for the expansion of MRT-3.<\/p>\n<p>The Senator has called for the government to interrogate the former officials of the Department of Transportation, and asked for the cooperation of her colleagues to investigate the ex-Transport officials,\u00a0 stressing that they should be accountable for the wasted millions of the government agency.<\/p>\n<p>According to Poe, out of the P3.8 billion deal, a total of P526 million has so far been paid by the government to Dalian Corporation.<\/p>\n<p>She questioned the department on the installation of the Dalian trails that was bought from China, &#8220;<em>Ano ba talaga ang balak gawin ng<\/em> DOTr<em> para ayusin ang<\/em> MRT-3? <em>At saan nila ginamit ang pondo ng<\/em> MRT-3 Capacity Expansion Program last year? [What is really the plan of DOTr for the MRT-3? And where did they use the funds of the MRT-3 Capacity Expansion Program last year]?&#8221; Poe asked during the plenary debates on the DOTr\u2019s proposed P70.4 billion spending program for 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Poe said that\u00a0the 48 trains are overweight and incompatible, it weighs about 49,000 kilograms each, and it reached the required \u201ctolerance limit\u201d of the MRT-3 tracks. Under the terms, the allowable tolerance limit should only be two percent or 926 kgs.<\/p>\n<p>She concluded that it was a \u201cclear grounds for canceling the order\u201d and said that the purchase of the LRVs was a big mistake.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just common sense. You haven&#8217;t even filled it with passengers yet the train is already overweight and our rails might not be able to take it,&#8221; Poe said.<\/p>\n<p>She added that the possible bidding and subsequent purchase of reliable trains will be costly and will take long litigation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We should have a contingency working in another way to procure while there&#8217;s ongoing litigation,&#8221; the senator stated.<\/p>\n<p>DOTr has said earlier that they are considering to return incompatible coaches to China.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The chairperson of the Senate committee on public services said that P526 million \u201cwent down the drain\u201d on the purchase &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":106551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[26955,26954,26956,12146],"class_list":["post-122650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-dalian-corporation","tag-expansion-of-mrt-3","tag-p526-million","tag-senator-grace-poe","mauthors-michealina-vallarta-david","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}