Transportation undersecretary for railways Cesar Chavez tendered his irrevocable resignation this morning, saying he was taking responsibility for recent MRT accidents and glitches.
Except for two recent incidents, Chavez said service at the MRT has improved since the government took over its maintenance earlier this month as shown by fewer incidents of passengers getting offloaded.
Chavez read a portion of his resignation letter in a news conference, saying “simple sense of delicadeza gives me no
choice but to resign.”
“Spare parts and management are replaceable. If you don’t buy spare parts, there are problems. If the performance of the management is lacking, there are problems. I am tendering my irrevocable resignation,” Chavez told reporters in Tagalog.
“We can’t keep on blaming the past. This is our responsibility now. It is my responsibility as undersecretary for railways,” he said.
“Mr. President, you are correct. There should be no excuses,” Chavez said. He said that he had apologized to the public many times for service interruptions.
Chavez said the past leadership’s decision to renew limit the term of maintenance contracts to six months at a time prevented the contractor from buying “capital spares” such as air-conditioners, bogey frames and fraction motors.
“For the last five years, six-month contracts. How can they buy spare parts? It’s a policy decision, Indecisive, unable to make a stable policy unable to make executive decision and that’s the impact now,” he said.
“This is not pinpointing, but rather a narration of the truth on why we got to this point,” he said.
Chavez cited recent incidents where a woman’s arm was severed in a freak accident and two train cars detached from each other, forcing commuters to walk on the tracks.
“We took the heat from the uncoupling of the train cars and we were judged by the people and by commuters and it was just right. We take responsibility for any inconvenience,” he said.
