Aquino administration flirts with an international incident over MRT scandal

Once again the Aquino Administration has missed an opportunity to demonstrate that there is one shred of validity in its tiresome claim that it represents the forces of anti-corruption and good governance daw, and in the process allowed an issue that could have been resolved quickly and quietly to balloon into a diplomatic crisis.

About a year ago, Dr. Josef Rychtar, since 2009 the ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Philippines, delivered an alarming story to Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya about what was evidently a clumsy extortion attempt by officials of the Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC).