Recently, a Senate
hearing conducted aiming to investigate the problems in MRT3. In front of the senators
and media, MRTC and DOTC explained their sides to clarify the issue. It is
still in our memories the train accident that happened last August. In that
accident, 38 people had been injured. The public has mixed reactions about what
they heard on the Senate hearing. Some were confused, but others already
understood what’s the root cause of the problems in MRT3 and they already knew
who should be blamed.
Sen. Chiz Escudero reprimanded both
camps; based on his observations the problem with them is they are not talking
to each other. It seems that they don’t knew each other. Instead to talk to
chose to file a case against each other. But it is not simple as that as what
Sen. Escudero said. For sure, his will not be happen if there has no deep
reason.
According to the Department of
Transportation and Communications Sec. Jun Abaya, his department is always
talking to the new head of MRTC which is also a government official. The
government has 70 shares to MRTC Holdings while the 30 percent owned by private
companies including Fil-Estate. Of course, the new MRTC chief will not
contradict with their plans because he is also a government people. But how
about the private companies who also a part of MRTC?
The former MRTC Chief Robert
Sobrepena also denied that they are not talking to DOTC. As a matter of fact,
they already sent three proposals to the government in 2004, 2008 and 2010. In
their letter, they wrote that they wanted to buy additional new trains for the
development of MRT3. But DOTC ignored their proposals because what they want
was just to buy second hand units. Bob Soprepena was right with their decision
because instead they should develop the system, it could only be ruined. Now,
the government is blaming MRTC to all the failures that happening in MRT3. If
they only follow the recommendation of their business partners, maybe there
will be no accident could happen.
Mr. Sobrepena also stated that aside
from rejecting of DOTC with their proposals, the government also violated their
BLT agreement. In 2012, DOTC terminated the contract of their original
maintenance provider which was the Sumitomo Corp. of Japan. For Sobrepena this
is a big factor why the service of MRTC becomes worst. During the time of
Sumitomo, they don’t experienced major problems in MRT3. But APT Global, the
maintenance provider of the government defended themselves. According to
company’s representative, they don’t have a fault because they are just
maintaining the train. The problem is about the engineering issue, it doesn’t
have a connection with the maintenance. The representative blamed DOTC for they
are the operator of MRT3.
Hope that the Senate hearing about
MRT issues would get a good result. It is not enough to point out who’s the real
responsible for the defective system of MRT. But they should develop it for the
benefits of the commuters. Before this, the government should fix their problem
with MRTC...
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