Commuters' group to DOTC: Collect MRT's P1-billion debt before hiking fares

MANILA, Philippines - The National Council for Commuter Protection (NCCP) called on the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to collect the alleged P1-billion debt of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) private concessionaires before imposing fare hikes at the EDSA-bound mass transit system.

Elvira Medina, president of the NCCP, said the DOTC’s reported plan to increase the fare rates at the MRT with the maximum fare going from P15 to P25 would be heavy burden to the half a million Metro Manilans who use the rail line for their daily commute.

Medina said the additional P40 a worker would have to pay for a round trip on the MRT would be cruel, especially at a time when electricity rates, road tolls and the price of basic commodities are also going up.

Medina said the DOTC should aggressively collect the obligations owed to it by the private concessionaires of the MRT, namely the MRT Corp. (MRTC) and the MRT Development Corp. (MRT Devco), which reportedly owes the DOTC more than P1 billion in unpaid development right payments.

This debt has been denied by the MRT Devco, claiming that it even made “overpayments” of P64 million.

The NCCP said the P1 billion should be able to cut a fifth of the P5-billion subsidy the government is currently extending to the MRT operations.

“We are asking the DOTC to heed President Aquino’s call for a ‘creative solution,’” the NCCP said in a statement, explaining that the department should be “creative” enough to force MRT Devco to settle its debt. 

“This company was given a special concession to make money for itself and for the government. MRT Devco. should pay their P1-billion obligation,” Medina said.

DOTC Undersecretary for Public Information Dante Velasco said the DOTC is bent on the total takeover and control of the right to rent out business and advertising space in the MRT system.

Velasco said that they will assert the right of the government to take control of the MRT, from its operations and the management of its development rights, in view of the government’s 76 percent economic interest gained via the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and the Development Bank of the Philippines. 

The two government banks had reportedly acquired the 76-percent interest with an astounding $800 million equity investment in MRT bonds.

The President, in his State of the Nation Address last July 26, had identified the MRT transaction as one of several questionable deals done during the Arroyo administration.

Aquino said the people’s money was used in the transaction “in exchange for an operation that was losing money.”