WHILE President Aquino clearly blamed the private owner of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 for the deteriorating state of the train system, his close ally, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya, has a word of his own.
The public, Abaya said, deserves a reliable train system, and the MRT Corp. (MRTC) has failed to provide that for quite some time now. Hence, the government had to make a move to fill that gap and try to improve the line’s services.
Abaya, also president of the Liberal Party, is asking MRT Holdings Inc. (MRTH) Chairman Robert John L. Sobrepeña to drop the case seeking to stop the government from adding 48 new train cars to the aging system.
“The riding public deserves a much better MRT 3 than what the private owner is providing. That is why we exercised political will to add new train cars ourselves. Not only did MRTH fail to add them, they even filed a case to stop us when we did,” he said.
MRTH sued the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in 2014 for procuring the new train cars despite the disproval of the line’s owner. Sobrepena, back then, said only the private owners have the right to purchase new coaches.
A Makati City court then issued a stay order against the procurement deal, but subsequently decided to favor the transportation department as only the Supreme Court may enjoin such a project. Sobrepeña then elevated his case to the Court of Appeals, which denied the petition. MRTH sought for a reconsideration of the appellate court’s decision, hence the pending case.
“MRTH’s case against the DOTC is a case against new trains. It is a case against the public. So we are fighting this case for the public interest,” Abaya said.
The transport chief’s statement came a day after President Aquino blamed the MRTC for the worsening state of the MRT.
In his last State of the Nation Address, the President said the public should blame the private company for its failure to properly maintain the train line despite its mandate.
“They remembered their rights, but not their obligations. Instead of them doing their jobs, we are the ones left to do their work,” President Aquino said on Monday.
Under the build-lease-transfer agreement signed by the government and the MRTC, the latter is mandated to construct and maintain Edsa’s main train line. The government, on the other hand, shall operate and lease the system.
President Aquino said the private partner for the MRT deal has proven negligent of its duty and has forced the government to take over the maintenance and the overhauling of the railway line.
“When we started to improve the line, they interrupted, saying that they can do the work. We did not allow it to happen and, instead, we initiated projects to improve the MRT. We procured train cars, but they held it back through a court TRO,” said President Aquino, referring to a temporary restraining order.
In the end, the government won the train-car procurement battle. The 48 new train cars will be delivered in tranches starting the first quarter next year.
But, for railway expert Rene S. Santiago, Mr. Aquino’s statements were typical. “These are typical statements from somebody who wants to put the blame on another,” he said. “This is just another blame game.”
For Santiago, the public only has the DOTC to blame.
“The problem has been there from the time that the MRT was built. The MRTC is responsible, under the build-lease-transfer agreement, to operate and supply the trains for the next 25 years. It also includes the maintenance,” he explained.
“But the DOTC took that right to maintain from the MRTC, which, in effect, provides for the cessation of the MRT’s responsibility to make available 22 trains during the peak hour.”
He claimed the MRTC was able to properly maintain the line, when it subcontracted Sumitomo Corp. for the upkeep of the railway system.
“But the government meddled with the maintenance. The trains declined from 22 to 15, and sometimes eight. It predict that by next year, there will be less than 10 cars available for operations,” Santiago said.
This, despite the scheduled delivery of the new train cars from Chinese train manufacturer Dalian Locomotive.
“All these things they have been telling us will not solve the problem of the MRT. They also have to resolve the problems in tracks, in the trains, the signaling, the power system and the communications system,” Santiago said.
The procurement of new train cars, he said, will be put to waste if the old coaches are not rehabilitated.
“They will just be replacements of the old train cars,” Santiago said.
2 comments
Such bare-faced lies! When DOTC head Mar Roxas fired Sumitomo in 2010, the company turned over 73 original Inekon coaches, of which 72 were still operational. This only shows how MRTC/Sumitomo had been doing their job maintaining the system all that time. Then in the short span of five years the 72 coaches were whittled down to seven! That’s a 90% attrition rate under the DOTC! And they have the nerve to blame the private owners?
To add to the hypocrisy, Abaya and Aquino are aching to buy out the MRT (Think about that for a moment: The MRT under the complete control of the most inept administration in our history.), yet Aquino himself criticized Arroyo in his first SONA for attempting to do the same thing.
You just cannot trust these people.
PNoy made MRT worse by not appointing the right people to the right posts. Instead, he appointed his friends and LP mates. The result of that and other decisions, is that the next administration will inherit his messes and so on ad infinititum