Wazzup Pilipinas!
"Czech Ambassador Josef Rychtar has submitted an affidavit to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to formalize his accusation that officials of the Metro Rail Transit 3 were involved in an alleged $30-million extortion attempt on a Czech company that offered to supply trains."- PhilStar
A couple of corrections in the article (for what it is worth...):
Wilson de Vera (former Liberal Party candidate for mayor of Calasiao) is actually with Ph Trams, the exclusive maintenance service provider for the MRT.
Manolo Maralit is also not from MRT -- I believe that he is with a 3rd party consultancy firm. As some of the previous posters were hinting, there is much more to this affair than meets the eye (by the way, the President's kin, their family friends, and their associates at Inekon were working quite hard to beat out their Chinese competition for this latest bid). The bidding process for large projects in the Philippines in both the public and private sectors is usually rife with rigging, bribery, kickbacks, quid pro quo patronage appointments, etc. I've been witnessing it first-hand for years. Bad governance abounds (including corporate governance.
In earlier news...some relatives of the administration were also involved...but the stories were changed immediately...There is
a story from Manila Times relating to this extortion:
"Presidential sister Ballsy and brother-in-law Eldon Cruz, former DOTC
Secretary Pete Prado and Lopez-in-law Steve Psinakis on their alleged
attempt to extort $30 million from a Czech company in exchange for MRT
project contracts" - Dante Ang, Manila Times
"Rychtar has subsequently retracted his story involving the group of
Ballsy, who were earlier implicated in the alleged extortion attempt, of
any involvement in the case. Instead Rychtar said in his meetings
with Transportation and Communications Sec. Emilio Abaya, he identified Al Vitangcol III as the one involved in the alleged shakedown on Inekon in
exchange for getting the contract to supply 48 trains for the MRT
expansion." - Tribune
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
