Did the Office of the Presidential Assistant of the Visayas (OPAV) influence the Department of Transportation (DOTr) on reorganizing the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)?
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña believed so.
In a press conference in Cebu City Hall earlier this morning, Osmeña hinted that OPAV Sec. Michael Dino had a hand in the DOTr’s decision to reorganize the BRT – PIU, which entailed relieving 13 out of the 40 members of its team.
“I believe Dino is behind all of these. They’re working very hard so that his friends in Singapore can get the $150 billion contract for the LRT (Light Rail Transit). Yes, he’s working very hard up to the last Cabinet meeting,” Osmeña commented.
Cebu Daily News tried to reach Dino for his comments but there was no response as of press time.
The mayor also renewed his plans on reporting to the World Bank that the Philippines is not respecting the bilateral agreement.
“That’s going to be a very serious point. They think they can do that (stopping the BRT)? They can but the repercussions are that whenever they ask assistance from the World Bank, they’re going to answer that,” explained Osmeña.
This was also the mayor’s warnings when National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Ernesto Pernia informally and initially announced to scrap the P16-billion BRT project last August 2017.
But Pernia reversed his pronouncements later on.