Let's Talk About MRT-LRT Fare Hike #ExpertWriter

The fare hike mania of MRT-LRT is making waves of disappointments to some militants groups, political opposition leaders, the commuters, the Senate and majority of Filipinos.

It’s been deliberately announced by the DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya in time with December holidays when none of its critics can take action about the fare hike. Moreover, the DOTC’s going ahead with its decision, the administration was turning a deaf ear to the clamor to suspend the increases until it can show improvements in the services of the metro rail system. The public protests against the Administration clamor to abort the fare increases and flaunted its insensitivity and arrogance to public demands.

The commuters expect the Administration to take action of the train improvements rather than increasing the fare. For, it’s ill-timed in what they’re experiencing in the past. The fare increases would prove disadvantageous to the public, especially the poor. It would worsen the traffic condition in Metro Manila, as these would drive many commuters to ride in buses and jeepneys.

Even Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero vowed to confront Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad over the “treacherous’’ increase of mass transit fare. Both accused the Department of Transportation and Communication of putting one over the public by enforcing the fare increase of the Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit without consulting them beforehand.

The increase, they argued, was ill-timed because Congress approved allocations for MRT and LRT in the P2.606-trillion 2015 national budget, and that MRT has not fixed its glitches.

Other Filipinos think negatively that Secretay Abaya, as the ruling Liberal Party’s acting President has made it a source of dirty money for election 2016. They concluded that such billion-peso corruption been prevented, there would be no need for the fare hike.

The Administration deal with its critics by reasoning out that it’s time to increase the fare because past administration had done nothing to do the increase. The political will to apply the train fare hike’s hard but necessary to maintain the operation.

Because of its strict requirements for second bidding in accepting as MRT3 maintenance provider, none has the guts to continue the bidding process. But Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya is very much alive in maintaining the strict selection of maintenance company. The DOTC will find another way to secure a maintenance provider through direct transaction with them.

Is this another way of the Administration to elude the public in contracting its own partner in dealing MRT3 issues? If the bidding requirements are too strict to follow, then, they are strategizing the effect of fare hike and the maintenance provider. The thing that the Administration could suffice to give for its present situation is the specific move for clarification. It’s totally hard to accept but the clear governance could.

The Filipinos felt the MRT-LRT fare hike as a clamp to their way of living. Demands for the train development are more important to them. Nevertheless, commuters cannot understand fully the issues behind the fare hike. More or less they pretend that the present Administration will help them not to squeeze their budget.

In the future, we can say, after these issues on how the Administration can solve by their prowess of people’s initiatives.