Senators: Upgrade train services before hiking MRT, LRT fares

Senators on Monday asked the government to defer the implementation of the  fare hike on Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) set on Jan. 4, 2014 until such time when the rail systems have also upgraded their respective services.

 

Senator Grace Poe said the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) should put off the “unnecessary and untimely fare increase effective Jan. 4 amid unmet public expectations to improve even the basic facilities of the train system.”

 

“We must remember that a mass transport system such as the MRT is an essential government service. The fare increase is an added insult and an injustice to the suffering riding public whose very lives are put on the line everyday,” Poe said in a press statement.

 

An independent survey done by Poe's office, covering about a hundred daily commuters of MRT, showed that the MRT got a failing grade in terms of maintenance works on the 15-year-old mass transport system.

 

Poe said the sorry state of the MRT—allegedly caused mainly by government mismanagement—could not justify an increase. “The government is obligated to maintain the subsidy until the system’s services and safety are upgraded,” the senator added.

'Gargantuan'
 

Acting Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III said the MRT and LRT management should improve their services before implementing fare increase.

 

"Nakakaawa mga kababayan natin. Sana upgrade muna nila bago magtaas ng singil," he said in a text message to GMA News Online.

 

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, for his part, said the “gargantuan fare hike is not justified” as the Congress had just approved the national budget for 2015 and supplemental budget for 2014 which both set aside funds for the LRT and the MRT.

 

“Why such a gargantuan fare hike? Who is intending to recover what? A minimal symbolic fare increase can be justified to relay the message to the users that their travel is being subsidized by the government. Maybe 10 to 20 percent increase could be justified,” Pimentel said in a separate text message.

 

Based on the new fare matrices issued by DOTC on Saturday, rates for end-to-end trips in MRT-3 will increase to P28 from P15 (from North Avenue to Taft Avenue and vice versa); P30 from P20 in LRT-1 (from Baclaran to Roosevelt and vice versa); and P25 from P15 in LRT-2 (from Recto to Santolan and vice versa).

Subsidy in 2015 budget
 

Poe said the announcement came at a time when the MRT-3 and LRT Lines 1 and 2 are accorded substantial government assistance in the soon-to-be signed General Appropriations Act, which includes the amounts of P4.65 billion in subsidy, P7.94 billion for MRT rehabilitation, and P4.67 billion in unpaid MRT taxes.

 

The supplemental budget, which will be immediately carried out in 2015, has the following items: P1.21 billion for MRT rehabilitation and capacity extension and P728 million rehabilitation fund for LRT 1 and 2.

 

In seeking for the justification of the fare increase, Pimentel said the government and Congress should ask and get to the bottom of these questions:

-Why is the use of LRT/MRT that expensive?

-How did it get that way?

-What contracts are onerous to and against the government and the people?

-Who signed them on behalf of the government?

-How can we extricate ourselves from such onerous disadvantageous unfair and possibly corrupt contracts?

 

Poe said while the MRT and LRT are in Metro Manila, the riders are mostly wage earners whose contribution to the national economy is far reaching and impacts productivity.

 

She also questioned why the DOTC did not inform the Senate public services subcommittee on transportation during its hearing Wednesday of the planned fare increase.

 

“The sub-committee in the last four months conducted three public hearings on the MRT issues. Almost all issues from the basic maintenance concerns to ownership of the kind of trains that we will procure in the coming years were all discussed. Considering that they have a date already to implement a new fare system, they should have volunteered it in the last hearing. But they did not. How could they be so insensitive to the millions of commuters and MRT, LRT riders?” she asked.

 

“When was the last time they conducted a consultation? The last hearing the DOTC conducted in December 2013 does not satisfy the due process requirements as the situation then as far as safety and convenience are concerned have drastically changed to beyond worst. An issue like this deserves a fresh consultation from all stakeholders, particularly the MRT and LRT riding public,” Poe said.

 

On the other hand, in a separate text message, Senator Sergio Osmena III said even at P27 fare, the operator loses money “so government subsidy would still be needed.” —NB, GMA News