Quezon City – ANTI-graft advocate lawyer Gerry Francisco filed on Thursday a criminal complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against past and present officials and employees of Light Rail Transit Authority involved in the anomalous works on LRT2 trainsets’ propulsion and monitoring system.
Jeremy Regino, Hernando Cabrera, Santos Abrazado, Paul Chua, Jose Jobel Belarmino, Federico Canar and their subordinates were charged for violation of Sections 3 (a), (e) and (g) and Section 4 (b) of Republic Act. No. 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and the 2016 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9184, otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act.
Included in the complaint are representatives of LRTA contractors Multiscan, Brownsteel and Worldleaders, namely Yollee Ong-Ramos, Joseph Ramos, Ma. Grazia Lee, and two other Koreans of Woo Jin corporation.
In his complaint affidavit, Franciso stated that the public respondents conspired with private respondents by inducing each other using imaginary scenario of alleged “upgrade works” and unlawful grounds to favor private respondents Ramoses to defraud the government.
Francisco said that the public respondents approved or consented to the use of three (3) good and running LRT2 trainsets to be used by respondents Ramoses for the testing of the WOOJIN KOREA equipment.
Francisco further said that the illegal “upgrade”works caused the LRTA to lose precious revenues that could have been generated if said three (3) trainsets were used to carry train passengers and not as “guinea pig” of the Ramoses and Woo Jin. This is in addition to the burden of passengers queuing for the arrival of trainsets since the number of the trainsets running was reduced, thereby causing the increased headway or distance between two (2) running trainsets.
In the complaint, Francisco highlighted that the lost government revenue due to the upgrade malaise of the public and private respondents to just install and test through trial and error is estimated to be P274 miilion pesos for 301 days. This is based on the P911,680.00 prospective revenue of LRTA for one trainset in one day.
Francisco also revealed in his complaint affidavit why the cost of the said “upgrade works” became disadvantageous to the government. He stated that maintenance cost of the propulsion and train monitoring system of ten (10) LRT2 trainsets under the Ramoses’ contract is only 223 miilion pesos while for the three (3) trainsets alone under the “upgrade” works by Multi Scan and Woo Jin Korea, the maintenance cost is already 220 milllion pesos.
“I was prompted to lodge the complaint based on information through incriminating documents that I received from anonymous LRT employees. These documents show conspiracy among the LRT respondents that gave undue benefits to respondent Ramoses that clearly violated the procurement law”, said Francisco in a statement.
In another instance, he further said, “Worldleaders was given another contract even if it already defaulted in its three previous contracts, and worst, was not blacklisted despite incurring default”. Francisco added, “Under the procurement law, a second or third case of default could have already resulted to the imposition of at least two (2) years of blacklisting from government procurement ”.
The public respondents were also charged administratively for violating Section 46 of the Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service in relation to Republic Act No. 6713, otherwise known as the Act Establishing a Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees for Grave Misconduct, Grave Abuse of Authority, Gross Neglect of Duty, and Serious Dishonesty.
Respondent Jeremy Regino who is currently the General Manager of the Philippine National Railways, served as LRTA Administrator from January 2022 to June 2022. He also served as the Head Executive Assistant during the time of then LRTA Administrator Melquiades Robles and LRTA Deputy Administrator Cesar Chaves.
Respondent Hernando Cabrera served as LRTA Administrator from June 2022 up to present, and previously, as LRTA Corporate Secretary of the LRTA Board of Directors during the time of then LRTA Administrator Robles and then Administrator Chaves.
When asked to further give details on how significant the documents and information that were used to support his complaint, Francisco said, “They are very credible. The Ombudsman has to right away preventively suspend the named LRT respondents to ensure the integrity of the documents that were provided in the complaint as their original copies are still in the custody of these LRT respondents”.
He also said, “In fact, there could be even no need for me to reply to any of the counter-affidavits of the respondents as the evidence supporting the contents of the complaint, from the facts and the discussions on the laws that were violated, could already stand on their own. Things look impossible for them to refute or controvert the facts”. “As I said, the documents are very incriminating”, he added.