It’s something the public has been asking for for years: public officials, who mostly have chauffeurs driving them around, should commute like everyone else.
A petition was actually filed back in 2013 demanding a law that would force lawmakers and other government officials to commute to work via public transportation at least once a month.
More recently, a bill was filed in the House of Representatives in August asking employees of the Land Transportation Regulatory and Franchising Board (LTFRB), which regulates transportation in the country, to take public transportation once a week.
Of course, we have yet to see any government officials take public transportation to work, aside from the occasional PR stunt like when former transportation secretary Jun Abaya did it in 2014. If you’ve forgotten about that glorious moment, he rode in a car normally reserved for women, the elderly and children, and did so well after rush hour.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told reporters this afternoon that he “might” take the Metro Rail Transit (MRT-3) to go to work so he could empathize with the plight of the public relying on Metro Manila’s busiest yet ill-maintained rapid transit system.
Glitches have been a daily occurrence for years now. But last week, a woman’s arm was ripped off after she passed out as she got off of the MRT train and fell onto the tracks. Just two days later, two MRT train cars decoupled in the middle of a trip, forcing commuters to walk the tracks.
READ: How a medical intern saved woman whose arm was sliced off at MRT
Roque said the government is doing its best to rehabilitate the MRT-3 line without sacrificing the needs of the public relying on the mass transport system, which traverses the busy Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) and connects Quezon City and Pasay City.
He said he could not give yet a timeline on when transportation officials can fully resolve the issues hounding the MRT. He instead offered to ride the train so he could see the problems firsthand.
“I wish I could give you a deadline. All I can offer you is once a week to take MRT to come to work,” Roque said in a news briefing. “I can do that so I can complain to the MRT people. Maybe I’ll do that once a week.”
Pretty good, huh?
Unfortunately, toward the end of the press briefing, Roque offered to meet the media at the “Katipunan station.”
That’s problematic as there is no “Katipunan” MRT station, it’s a station on the LRT line.
Of course, current administration officials including Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade continue to blame the previous administration for the MRT woes.
But Senator Grace Poe pointed out during a transportation committee meeting last Friday that they should do less finger-pointing and take more action. “Don’t be content with just blaming the previous administration, you’ve been in office for a year already and we have yet to see any concrete plans from you,” she said in Tagalog.
Roque told reporters, however, that the transportation department assured the president they were working on a solution. “They’re working to procure a reliable maintenance contractor, rebuild new rails, buy new train cars and a new signaling system. In other words, they are revamping the MRT system,” Roque said.
The transportation department recently terminated the contract the previous government had with MRT maintenance provider Busan Universal Rail Inc. following successive breakdowns in the operations of the train system.
Roque admitted the administration’s decision to terminate the contract with BURI creates a “legal quicksand,” noting that “although you can unilaterally rescind [a contract], you do so at the risk of being overruled by the courts.”
The MRT system was only built to carry 360,000 t0 380,000 passengers a day, yet it averages over half a million passengers every day.
While these glitches and accidents continue to happen, 48 trains worth PHP3.8 billion (US$74 million) remain unused. According to a Philippine Star report, the trains procured during the Aquino administration, do “not have a signaling system.”
The transportation department has filed plunder and graft complaints against cabinet members of the Aquino administration over the unusable trains.
“We must stress that the great suffering of the riding public as a result of the failure to deliver on the responsibilities of public office such as the case of the current state of the MRT-3 systems carries consequences and that those accountable will be held liable,” Roque said of the complaints.
with a report from ABS-CBN News
Reader Interactions