It’s already the
fourth week of January 2015 and the debate is still ongoing regarding the
sudden fare increase of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 and the Light Rail
Transit (LRT) Line 1 and 2.
Earlier this
year, the fare increased by almost 100% as students like me faced the return of
the classes. January 4 marked the date of the sudden increase that took all of
us by surprise. If you would look closely at the data, the last significant
increase was almost a decade ago and if I would be asked, I think it would be just
fine to increase the fare as it is already time to upgrade the maintenance of
operation of the trains. You can check out my stance on this on my previous
posts.
However, as I
dwell deeper into the issue, my stand on the case began to change and now I
think that the fare increase was unjust, has no clear basis and is done for
corruption purposes. How did I come up with this conclusion? Well just look at
the facts that were presented.
When asked how
they came up with the new fare matrix, Department of Transportation and
Communications (DOTC) Secretary Jun Abaya were not able to explain clearly as
well as present data that will support their case.
Also, Secretary Jun Abaya failed to attend
hearing at the Senate and gave “meeting with clients” as an excuse even though
they were given information about the hearing date weeks before so they could
prepare.
Another thing
that we could look to is this question: Why does DOTC keep on pushing the
buyout to happen? Well, it didn’t go well as they have planned as the Senate
scrapped their petition for this but yeah, I still haven’t figured out why they
keep on pushing for it. The most possible reason is that they want to full
control of the train and most likely, they’ll just give the maintenance to a
company they are in favor of just like what they did years ago.
At the end of
the day, the fare increase was uncalled for and was not justified. When you
look at it from a shallow perspective, one would think that it is just for
upgrade purposes. But why do they need to increase the fare when in fact, they
had the budget for it? What exactly happened??
What do you guys
think?
Cheers~!
- Justin -
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- Justin -