We can’t do anything about it — or at least not yet.
This sums up the Department of Transport’s (DOTr) statement released on Monday about a viral photo showing three toilets placed side-by-side without any partitions or walls.
According to the transport ministry, the contractor’s failure to hand over the project to the Philippine National Railways (PNR), the agency managing the train station where the washroom could be found, prevents the agency from repairing the facilities.
The viral photo was posted by netizen Ehm Diolata on her Facebook page on Friday. Diolata said she spotted the incongruous sight at the PNR’s train station on España Boulevard in Manila.
In its statement, which the DOTr posted on their official Facebook account, the toilet is said to be part of the project Kayo ang Boss Ko (literally “you are our boss”) or KBK for short. The project was initiated by the previous iteration of the DOTr, the Department of Transportation and Communication, in 2012.
Wrote the DOTr: “The project was procured by DOTC separately, one for civil works and the other for supply of the (sic) materials, hence, the project was not implemented due to absence of coordination even after the end of the term of the past administration.”
The project was not formally turned over to the PNR, according to the statement, which prevents the agency from improving the facilities.
At this point, the only thing that the government can do is to blacklist the suppliers. Said the statement: “PNR is recommending to DOTr blacklisting proceedings for the KBK contractors and officially handover the project to PNR for proper closure of the project.”
Reactions to the statement vary: some are supportive of the DOTr, while others are more critical.
Wrote Aris Lacuna: “So instead of establishing solidarity #DOTR is now into mud slinging? File a case then move on!”
Another netizen used the opportunity to complain about PNR’s facilities in another station.
Wrote Nel Sumbise: “Sadly, [at] PNR’s Dela Rosa Station [in] Makati City, there are no CRs [comfort rooms/restrooms] that people can use. There’s no water supply, so where does our money go! Are you at the PNR still losing money when there are so many people who take the train? Why did you construct three (4) (sic) CRs that are closed? You are just wasting DOTr’s funds.”
Shaun Pedrosa said she “love[s]” the administrators of the DOTr Facebook page. “They’re the most active and interactive out of all government agencies,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, Evitisop Em called on the government to prosecute those responsible for the project’s failure.
She wrote in a mix of Filipino and English: “This is crazy! There are no walls? [C]an someone please bring those people responsible to this brilliant idea to jail!!!!!”
In a Facebook statement posted on July 30, Diolata said she had no intention to “humiliate any person or government body” by posting the photo of the toilets.
She wrote: “T’was merely for fun, and out of concern as well. I am a PNR commuter since I was a child….That day was the first time I saw a toilet inside a PNR Station. It was clean, but there were no dividers to separate the three urinals that were installed.”
Most people thought the three-in-one toilet facilities were amusing, as evidenced by the comments to Diolata’s original post.
