Palace won’t ask Abaya to go on leave while facing MRT deal probe

(Updated 6:48 p.m.) Malacañang will not ask Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya to go on leave while facing the Ombudsman's probe on an allegedly anomalous maintenance contract for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT).

 

"That is a personal decision on the part of an individual," presidential spokesman Secretary Edwin Lacierda said at a press briefing on Friday.

 

But Lacierda stressed that Abaya is "willing and ready to face whatever accusation is being hurled against him."

 

"Secretary Jun Abaya has already appeared in a number of committees in the legislative branch to speak about the situation in MRT... He said he’s willing to cooperate and to attend, to appear before any investigative body," he told reporters.

 

Earlier, the Office of the Ombudsman said it has ordered a preliminary probe on Abaya, former MRT general manager Al Vitangcol III and several other transportation officials for allegedly entering into a $1.15-million-a-month maintenance contract without public bidding.

 

The probe was called after the Ombudsman's Field Investigation Office filed graft complaints against Abaya and Vitangcol for the award of the MRT's maintenance contract to the joint venture of Philippine Trans Rail Management and Services Corporation-Comm Builders and Technology Philippines Corporation (PH Trams-CB&T) in October 2012.

 

The DOTC chief welcomed the probe, saying he has nothing to hide.

'Disservice to our country'

Abaya, for his part, said "the country will be better off" if he will not go on leave as DOTC chief while being investigated by the Ombudsman.

"On my own, I think it would be a disservice to our country if I take a leave. You know the issues in DOTC. Then whoever will replace me will have a lot of catching up to do," he said in an interview aired over GMA News TV's "Balitanghali" on Friday afternoon.

He, however, said that he is ready to leave his post temporarily or permanently if instructed by President Aquino to do so.

 

Abaya is the acting president of the ruling Liberal Party (LP), which President Benigno Aquino III chairs.

Another Cabinet official, Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad, is facing a plunder complaint before the Ombudsman for allegedly engineering and implementing the government's controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program, parts of which have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In July, President Aquino rejected Abad's resignation offer at the height of the DAP controversy. — RSJ/KBK, GMA News