‘Commuters victims of DOTC-MRTC squabble’

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC) were urged yesterday to stop their word war and start to seriously resolve the issues plaguing the breakdown-prone mass rail line along EDSA.

“The victims of this endless wrangling are the more than 600,000 workers and commuters using the EDSA rail line every day,” Rep. Anthony Bravo of party-list group Cooperatives National Network Party, a federation with more than two million members, said.

“It appears that the DOTC and MRTC are more focused on ensuring that one of them gets blamed for this MRT disaster than on finding solutions to the MRT’s numerous problems,” Bravo said.

He said his group has hundreds of members commuting on the MRT and have asked him what lawmakers could do to ease the suffering of commuters.

Bravo was reacting to the blame tossing between the government and MRTC, the supposed private owner of the EDSA rail system, which two state banks – Land Bank and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) – control to the tune of 80 percent.

He noted that the DOTC has accused MRTC of failing to procure more trains to upgrade the MRT, as well as filing a case to stop the government from acquiring additional coaches for the line.

MRTC, on the other hand, claimed that it had submitted proposals to the government to obtain additional trains, but that these were just ignored, Bravo said.

He said the two sides are also blaming each other for MRT’s maintenance problems.

“MRTC has been quick to blame the present maintenance provider, Global APT, claiming that when its contractor Sumitomo was handling maintenance, there were no problems. Global APT alleges that it is doing the job better and cheaper,” he said.

The lawmaker added that under the present maintenance contract, peak-hour train availability has improved.

“The DOTC and MRTC should find ways to resolve their issues soon, or commuters will continue to suffer. They should fix MRT’s problems, instead of blaming each other,” Bravo stressed.

The government plans to buy the entire MRT facility from its present owners, including Land Bank and DBP. The 2015 budget includes P54 billion for such purpose.

However, a lawyer for private investors led by the Sobrepeñas of financially troubled College Assurance Plan claimed P54 billion is not enough for the rail line.

The two state banks’ exposure in MRT is reportedly worth P35 billion.

The government plans to undertake a valuation before buying the system.