MRT-3 chief fired after escalator glitch

Former train exec bound for comeback?   

MANILA, Philippines — Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon has sacked Metro Rail Transit Line 3 general manager Oscar Bongon from his post following an escalator malfunction at the MRT-3 Taft Avenue station that left nearly a dozen passengers injured.

Dizon confirmed yesterday that he fired Bongon for failing to act quickly on the incident.

The escalator’s repair was reportedly delayed for days. This angered Dizon as thousands of commuters ride the MRT-3 daily.

On March 8, an escalator at the MRT-3 Taft Avenue station broke down, leaving 10 passengers injured.

According to Dizon, the MRT-3 management had failed to have the escalator repaired immediately.

Following the relief of Bongon, another former official of the Duterte administration is making a comeback to manage the busiest railway in Metro Manila, which recently suffered from setbacks.

Sources within the Department of Transportation (DOTr) told The STAR that Dizon has pitched Michael Capati to replace Bongon.

Capati served as director for operations first before he was named MRT-3 chief from 2017 to 2022.

Since exiting the government, Capati has taken on executive roles in the insurance industry. He was a senior vice president for Stronghold Insurance Co. Inc. until 2023, before moving to Alpha Insurance & Surety Co. Inc.

During his tenure at the MRT-3, the railway embarked on a rehabilitation program in 2018.

The rehabilitation – financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency – required P21.9 billion initially, but the government increased the funding to P29.6 billion in 2023.

The first part of the rehabilitation was completed before the end of the Duterte presidency in 2022.

The government offered free MRT-3 rides for more than three months to show commuters the upgrades in the railway.

The rehabilitation pushed up the running speed of trains to 60 kilometers per hour, from 25 kph, reducing the waiting time to 3.5 minutes from nine minutes.

The MRT-3 tripled its ridership capacity from 200,000 to 600,000 passengers per day as a result of the rehabilitation.

Shortlist of next MRT chief

Malacañang has a shortlist of possible replacements for Bongon, Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said yesterday.

“We were told that the list of candidates has been submitted to the PMS (Presidential Management Staff). We are just waiting for who would be the next MRT general manager,” Castro said at a press briefing.

Dizon rode the MRT-3 on Monday morning and inspected the conditions of some stations, including Taft Avenue, Ayala and Shaw Boulevard.

He ordered a one-hour extension of the railway’s night operations and the deployment of additional trains during peak hours to transport more passengers once the rehabilitation of EDSA begins.

The MRT-3 transports an average of 375,474 commuters daily, with ridership increasing by five percent to 135.89 million in 2024, from 129.03 million in 2023.

The Akbayan party-list welcomed the DOTr’s decision to extend the MRT-3’s operations by an hour.

Akbayan first nominee Chel Diokno thanked Dizon for heeding the public’s call for improved transportation services.  –  Helen Flores, Mark Ernest Villeza