MANILA, Philippines - A commuters’ group is calling for the resignation of Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya over his recent pronouncements regarding the fare hike in the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT).
“We, the commuters, lambast Abaya for publicly stating that the P1 billion to P2 billion to be generated by the fare increase would go to the betterment of train facilities, when in fact it would ensure the profits promised by the government to the private MRTC (Metro Rail Transit Corp.),” Train Riders Network (Tren) spokesman James Relativo said yesterday.
“We are not surprised by Abaya’s recent admittance to this,” Relativo added, referring to a GMA News report where the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) chief admitted that revenue from the fare hike would be used to pay the private concessionaire that owns the train line.
In the report, Abaya was quoted as saying that the revenue from the fare hike would go to an escrow account set aside for the payment of the government’s monthly dues to the MRTC.
He stressed, however, that the public can still expect better MRT operations in 2015, as Congress provided additional funds for the rehabilitation of the train system.
Congress reportedly allotted P1.2 billion under the 2014 supplemental budget and another P9 billion from the 2015 national budget for the repair and rehabilitation of the MRT.
But according to Relativo, Abaya’s changing pronouncements on where the revenues from the fare hike would be used is “conduct unbecoming of a Cabinet secretary.”
He called for the resignation of the DOTC chief.
“We have seen and tested this time and time again – the fare increase wouldn’t ensure better services,” he said.
“The mass railway system’s direction of privatization has incurred so much debt that the chunk of government subsidy is actually going to the private sector, and not to actual maintenance,” he added.
The government is set to implement a fare increase of almost 100 percent starting Jan. 4.
Tren also earlier criticized the DOTC and the Aquino administration for the decision to announce the fare adjustment during the holidays.
“If the government couldn’t promise more relevant ‘gifts’ such as wage and salary increase for commuters, they could have at least not acted like a Grinch,” Relativo said.
Another commuters’ group, the Riles Laan sa Sambayanan (Riles) Network, challenged President Aquino to a public debate on issues involving the fare hike.
“The arguments being put forward by the Aquino government to defend the fare hikes are unreasonable and unacceptable to Filipinos,” Riles Network spokesman Sammy Malunes said.
“We believe that the main reason for the move is to ensure the profits of big capitalists who want to own the train systems once these are privatized,” he added.
Malunes said he is also open to debate with Abaya and Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. on the issues involving the country’s railway system.
Meanwhile, various pro-administration blocs in the House of Representatives gave their full backing to the DOTC’s decision to impose fare adjustments for LRT lines 1 and 2 and MRT-3 as a way of reducing taxpayer-funded subsidies.
In a joint statement, the lawmakers said the multibillion-peso subsidy for the commuter train systems could be used instead to improve public transport and other social services.
They said part of the savings to be realized from the fare adjustment would also be used by the government to bankroll priority development programs for poor and marginalized Filipinos in non-rail sectors.
The lawmakers added that the fare increase would enable the government to save P2 billion in annual subsidies, or 17 percent of the P12 billion that it allots each year to subsidize the LRT/MRT train systems.
The government has been subsidizing or paying for at least half to more than two-thirds of every train passenger’s fare, they claimed.
“Malacañang could make better use of the P2 billion in subsidy savings to rev up these vital mass transport systems for the benefit of Metro Manila commuters and to fund other non-rail development projects for non-MRT and -LRT users in the Visayas and Mindanao,” they said.
They noted, for instance, that the P2 billion in projected annual savings would be enough to build 8,240 classrooms, 82 kilometers of farm-to-market roads, or irrigate 11,240 hectares of cropland.
The senior administration lawmakers who issued the statement were Reps. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City, who heads the Mindanao bloc; Oscar Rodriguez of Pampanga for the Central Luzon bloc; Rodolfo Fariñas of Ilocos Norte and Eric Singson of Ilocos Sur, Ilocos bloc; Cesar Sarmiento of Catanduanes, Bicol bloc; Jun Chipeco Jr. of Laguna, Southern Tagalog bloc; and Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar, Visayas bloc.
“I support the fare increase to sustain proper maintenance of the rail systems, to lessen the subsidy from the national government, and to reallocate the savings to social projects in Mindanao,” Rodriguez said.
Evardone said the savings from the subsidy could be used to rehabilitate communities devastated by Typhoons Yolanda and Ruby.
“We need more funds to build back better our public infrastructure and sustain the livelihood programs for the victims of Yolanda and Ruby,” Evardone, whose province was hit badly by the two strong typhoons, said.
The lawmakers traced the current poor state of these urban train systems to the past administrations’ “lack of political will to adjust fares in order to generate enough funds to upgrade their services and buy more LRVs (light rail vehicles) to ease the train congestion.” – With Paolo Romero