Senator Grace Poe on Friday said the officials of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) should be held accountable for the defective train coaches delivered for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) Cavite Extension Project.
The statement was issued after DOTr Undersecretary Cesar Chavez disclosed to the House Committee on Transportation that 80 out of the 120 brand-new trains that were procured in 2017 have already arrived, but the majority have water leaks.
"The unused LRT-1 coaches due to water leaks show how exasperating the situation can get. Our transportation woes just won't end," Poe, who heads the Senate committee on public services, said in a statement.
She said "accountability" and "transparency" must be demanded from DOTr officials who permitted the train coaches' delivery without thoroughly inspecting them.
"We will hold the Department of Transportation to its commitment to [making] the supplier remedy the problem to make the coaches usable," Poe said.
The senator underlined that the issue involves the public's money.
"We cannot just let the train cars gather water and rot while millions of commuters go through their daily commutes," she added.
Meanwhile, in an interview during DZRH's Dos Por Dos on Friday, Chavez explained that the Spanish contractor, Mitsubishi-CAF, failed to comply with the specifications stated in the Php 12 billion contract.
He said the government has already suspended further payments to Mitsubishi-CAF, and ordered the contractor to submit a rectification plan.
