By Mortz C. Ortigoza
DAGUPAN CITY – Senator Francis Escudero assailed and
promised to investigate the procurement of defective and questionable made in
India cars the government bought for the national police.
Escudero said the 1,470 units of CAC Mahindra’s Enforcer
Patrol Cars that have been converted from right hand drive to left hand could
endanger their passengers.
“India is a right hand drive vehicles’ country, ”he quipped to media men here Thursday.
The Department of Budget and Management approved the P1.3
billion budget for their procurement.
He cited that when the driver manoeuvre the driving wheel
to the right, the right front wheel did not jibe to the desired location of the
driver.
“Because it is converted, it is easy to manoeuvre the
driving wheel of this car to the left side compared to the right side. When you
do u-turn it should always be in the left otherwise it would be risky if you
make a u-turn at the right side,” he stressed.
Escudero deplored that the government should not to put
into peril the lives of police men or soldiers by providing them substandard
vehicles like Mahindra.
“Sisilipin namin iyan, lalo na sa (Senate) budget deliberation na
ito”
He questions also the signal lights of the vehicle. He
cited a case in his province Sorsogon where the signal light of the car blinks
on the right side despite the driver turning on the left button.
The other questions the senator wants to ask those
responsible for the procurement are the numbers of cars that have been sold to
the Philippines before the government bought them, the availability of their
spare parts in the country, the capacity of local mechanics to fix them in the
places where they are designated, the terms of reference on the bid if the foreign maker had sold 200 thousand to 300 thousand cars in the
country before the DBM approved their purchased.
According to ACAC Mahindra's President Felix Mabilog Jr, as
quoted by TopGear website, most of his bidding competitors were dealers and CAC Mahindra was the
only car distributor.
Unlike the dealers who would have had to outsource the
conversion of the vehicle body, CAC Mahindra--being a distributor and not a
dealer--was the only bidder with an assembly plant facility to have its patrol
units' bodies done locally in its factory.
"That was our advantage over our competitors,"
Mabilog said. "The Enforcer's bodies were factory-made here."
Mabilog said many in the Philippines did not like CAC Mahindra.
"Some of our competitors really spent money to put down Mahindra. Check the bidding records. The vehicle requirements for bidding were adjusted three to four times not for our benefit, but to put us at a disadvantage."
"Some of our competitors really spent money to put down Mahindra. Check the bidding records. The vehicle requirements for bidding were adjusted three to four times not for our benefit, but to put us at a disadvantage."
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