Higher fares, broken down trains

A COMMUTER group on Thursday rejected the government’s claim that low fares led to the deterioration of Metro Manila’s commuter train system.

The Riles Laan sa Sambayanan or Riles Network blamed the deterioration instead on the privatization of the Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit .

“The Aquino administration should stop [its] baseless [excuses] to justify the privatization and burdensome fare hike, said Sammy Malunes, Riles Network spokesman.

Melquiades Robles, former Light Rail Transit Authority administrator, said the ridership of LRT 1 has dropped by 80,000 commuters per day because of the fare hike.

“There are fewer trains and a longer loop time now since they took over in 2010,” he told The Standard.

He attributed poor train service to mismanagement.

“A fare increase is not the response to improve the service,” he added.

Malunes said the fare hike would only benefit the train operators and the Pangilinan-Ayala consortium, and not the 600,000 riders since the proceeds from the increase will go to paying the P5 billion subsidy and to pay off the 15 percent return on investment guaranteed to the MRT Corp. from 2000 to 2025.

The LRT and MRT fares in the past years have been more than enough to maintain and sustain the train operation, he said.

He also criticized the Aquino administration for a recent spate of accidents on the MRT line, saying that the private maintenance service provider, APT Global, continues to earn profits while neglecting the safety and protection of commuters. – With Vito Barcelo and Macon R.Araneta

“The government’s PPP contract with the consortium is lopsided. The LRTA and MRT have defeated their mandate to provide safe, reliable and affordable mass transport service,” Malunes said.

One-sided provisions in the contract gave the concessionaire guaranteed profits despite the poor service.

The inclusion of the LRT1 operations and maintenance in the LRT 1 under the Public-Private Partnership program would give the winning bidder a tremendous advantage, he said.

“What is frightening is the power wielded by the winning bidder. The Ayala-Metro Pacific consortium would eventually control Line 1 operations, the automated fare collection system, and the construct ion of the Line 1 extension. Metro Pacific also controls part of the MRT 3. Moreover, the consortium also intends to bid on the privatization of the LRT2 system. This is a virtual monopoly in the train line, which will remove any possible checks and balances regarding its performance and give them tremendous control to dictate fares,” Riles said.

The Transportation Department on Thursday said the rehabilitation of 63 toilets in 13 MRT stations were underway.

“One of the basic necessities of an MRT-3 rider are functioning and decent comfort rooms. Alongside our improvement projects for train operations is this toilet rehabilitation project, which responds to the call of our commuters for better passenger comfort and convenience,” a department statement said.

This project began Feb. 26 and is scheduled for completion in September.

Opposition Senator Jospeh Victor Ejercito said the public transport system was in disarray, with long lines and breakdowns in the commuter train system, and delayed flights in the country’s airports, and a mismanagement of seaports.

The state of deterioration prompted him, as chairman of the Senate committee on economic affairs, to call a hearing on the transportation sector and the PPP program.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), meanwhile, demanded a P136 wage increase because of the erosion of workers’ buying power amid rising prices, including those for transportation, water and power.

“Our economy has been improving and continues to perform better than its peers in the region but the Filipino workers who largely contributed to that growth are falling through the cracks and being left behind. Working people also deserved a share of the pie that only a few are privileged to have. Many minimum wage earners are falling by the day and they are being ignored by government,” TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said.

He said they are also going to file a wage increase petition of P136 on top of the current P466 minimum wage before the Regional Tripartite Wage And Productivity Board for Metro Manila. – By Rio N. Araja With Vito Barcelo and Macon Ramos-Araneta - Manila Standard Today

Solons. party-list and labor groups file petition at SC to halt train fare hike.

(Photo via Noel Alamar)

The groups filed today at the Supreme Court a petition for certiorari and prohibition with prayer for issuance of Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the recently implemented fare hike in the Light rail Transit and Metro Rail Transit.

The petitioners, led by Senator Joseph Victor G. Ejercito, 2nd District Parañaque Rep. Gustavo Tambunting, Ang Nars Partylist Rep. Leah Paquiz, Buhay Partylist Congressmen Lito Atienza, Irwin Tieng and Mariano Michael Vellarde, former Cavite 3rd District Rep. Crispin "Boying" Remulla, Allan Tanjusay, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP); Allan Montaño, Federation of Free Workers (FFW); Leody De Guzman, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP); Rene Magtubo, Partido Manggagawa (PM); and Annie Geron of PS LINK, said that the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) failed to coordinate and direct the Land Transportation Franchise and Regulatory Board (LTRFB) to comply with the publication, notice and hearing requirements for the fare hike.

According to Executive Order (EO) 202, the LTFRB has the "adjudicatory power to determine, prescribe and approve and periodically review and adjust, reasonable fares, rates and other related charges, relative to the operation of public land transportation services provided by motorized vehicles." This function of LTFRB is also in relation to the 2011 LTFRB Rules of Procedure. Instead, however, the DOTC issued Department Order No. 2014 - 014 on December 18, 2014, which announced the fare increase.

The petitioners added that DOTC unilaterally proposed, approved and implemented the fare adjustment. Hence, DOTC has no authority to issue the assailed Department Order and therefore can be considered null and void.

Named respondents were LTFRB Chairman Winston M. Ginez, DOTC Secretary Emilio Abaya, MRT 3 Office Officer-in-Charge Renato Z. San Jose, Metro Rail Transit Corporation and Light Rail Manila Consortium (LRMC) Administrator Honorito D. Chaneco.

The petitioners also called the fare hike as "heartless" since majority of the commuters taking the LRT and MRT are employees, laborers, small workers and minimum and informal wage earners who can only afford to spend a small portion of their salary for transportation expense.

They added that the responsibility to protect the economically underprivileged from injustice and oppression was neglected when the government unilaterally implemented the fare adjustment.

Furthermore, the petitioners also registered that continuing maintenance problem besetting the MRT, which caused trip delays and breakdowns is one of the clear reasons that the implemented fare hike was inappropriate and unreasonable. - Senate Press

‘Tax the rich instead of raising MRT fares’

THE labor coalition Nagkaisa! on Friday demanded that the government take away the subsidies and tax perks from the rich, such as the P5.2-billion subsidy for the power industry and five to seven-year tax holidays for local and foreign corporations, if it wants to save P2 billion in subsidies by imposing fare increases in the MRT and LRT.

Partido Manggagawa spokesman Wilson Fortaleza said removing the P7-billion to P10-billion annual train subsidy to free up money amounting to P2 billion for other social services was a fallacious argument, saying the poor, who are entitled to government subsidy in varying degrees, should not, by class or geographical location, be pitted against each other.

"This is comparable to the fact that businesses across all industry also enjoy billions of pesos of subsidy in the form of tax holidays, financial assistance, free repatriation as well as import and export privileges," said Fortaleza whose PM belongs to Nagkaisa! coalition.

He said the power industry, the most lucrative business in the country today, received a total of P5.2 billion in subsidy in 2012 based on the 2012 Census of Philippine Business and Industry.

He also cited the seven-year tax holiday granted a Thai-owned firm for putting up a P2- billion hogs and poultry business in the country, prompting local producers and growers to complain that the domestic hogs and poultry industry was being killed by big foreign corporations.

Fortaleza reiterated his group's position that it is more productive to provide an annual subsidy to the estimated 500 million rides of blue-collar workers and students who use the trains regularly than the luxurious lifestyles of 500 public officials.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the commuters' groups RILES and TREN are set to question the MRT-LRT fare hike on Jan. 5, a day after the rate increase is enforced by the government.

"We will question the basis for the increase, the authority of the agencies who approved the hike and the process by which the increase was upheld," Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

He exhorted the public to support their initiative especially in seeking a temporary restraining order and massive street protests.

"We call on commuters to support this initiative by joining the various protest actions leading up to Jan. 5 and beyond. It is callous on the part of the regime to announce the hike during the holidays and implement it during the visit of the Pope. This period of joy and hope is dampened by the prospect of greater burdens on the poor," Reyes said.

"For that, let the world see the heartless, anti-people government that we have. And let the world know that the Filipino people are resisting its unjust impositions."

Nagkaisa!, for its part, likewise bewailed the huge revenue losses coming from tax evasion and smuggling, saying the failure to address this age-old problem had created a "pass-on" culture in public policy.

"This is the reason why the burden shifted heavily to indirect taxes like Value Added Tax and taxes withheld from wage earners.  At the same time, smuggling creates abundance of cheap imported goods at the detriment of local producers. And now the removal of subsidies," Fortaleza said.

He said smuggled goods had no local labor components, which was both a revenue and job loss to Filipinos.

He said PM supported the view of Senator Allan Peter Cayetano that unless trillions of pesos of lost revenue due to smuggling, tax evasion and official corruption was plugged, the removal of MRT/LRT subsidy would be painfully and socially unjust.

"Subsidy is a good social policy.  It is a right, an entitlement of poor people while corruption and fraud are privileges enjoyed by the rich and powerful.  By removing the subsidy, the government is renouncing a good policy," Fortaleza said.

Quoting the World Bank, Cayetano said for every P1 collected by the government, P2 remained uncollected. This was estimated to be between P2 to P4 trillion of lost revenue or bigger than the recently approved budget of P2.6 trillion.

Cayetano said he would take up this issue next year amid the plan by the government to remove the subsidy to the metro rail system. The plan would double the MRT and LRT fares beginning Jan. 4.

Fortaleza said the coalition Nagkaisa! will be meeting next week to draw up plans against the impending fare hike. -  By Christine F. Herrera / Manila Standard Today

TUCP tells Aquino: Lead from the front

THE largest labor organization in the country, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), on Monday called on President Benigno Aquino 3rd to “lead from the front” and convene a “national summit for a jobs program” and a “national summit on power, water and public transport.”

“The TUCP believes that all sectors of society will rally behind the President once he takes the cudgels for the real issues that plague the country today: unemployment, the power crisis, the impending water crisis and the public transport breakdown,” TUCP Executive Director Luis Corral said.

According to him, “(t)he Left and their outworn ideological prescriptions are now outwearing the welcome and tolerance of those who simply want investments that create decent jobs and arguably the governance reforms of Aquino are creating such a window of opportunity.”

“In the same vein, there are those presuming to speak for the basic social sectors in advancing a narrative of succession in 2015, (with one) painting a false picture of the administration and the other is doing a disservice to the nation in distracting the President from the real problems he has to address in the last two years of his administration,” Corral said.

He added that Aquino’s “failure to take up these real problems, not the elite discourse on 2015 succession, will be the prelude to an economic meltdown and collapse of his social contract” with the people,” he added.

The TUCP pointed out that a recent Social Weather Stations survey on joblessness and the static 7.1 percent unemployment rate represent the true picture of how far economic inclusiveness still has to go, that the power crisis is having a chilling effect on locators and investors and may lead to a new round of job retrenchments.

It said even as clogged ports have led to some 20,000 workers being laid off, ordinary workers risk death and amputation everyday as they take the dilapidated Metro Rail Transit 3 train system daily.

Meanwhile, the TUCP accused the government of playing deaf to cries of the National Water and Resources Board that El Nino threatens the country’s water supply for drinking purposes, agricultural use and electricity generation.

TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said the President is badly served by high officials preparing their golden parachutes or warming their chairs preparing for future electoral campaigns. - JING VILLAMENTE / Manila Times