DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya is wrong. The daily sufferings of MRT 3 commuters, the lousy airports and the long waiting times of flights due to NAIA air congestion, the Manila pier congestion and other shortcomings of DOTC are political issues.
It is unfortunate it was Jojo Binay who belatedly brought up the problems of inadequate infrastructure after he resigned from the Aquino Cabinet. Where were you, VP Binay all these years, when this column had been raising this gross inadequacy of the current administration?
Indeed the silence of Mr. Binay makes him as guilty as Jun Abaya and the other officials of the same Cabinet who failed to see the urgency of alleviating the sufferings of the commuters. That Binay is bringing up the problems now is political opportunism on his part.
But yes, Mr. Binay is correct to raise these problems as valid political issues during this election campaign. This is particularly so because the main government agency responsible for doing nothing much was once officially headed by his rival, Mar Roxas, who insiders say, was still calling the shots at DOTC long after he moved to DILG.
According to Mr. Abaya, the technical glitches being experienced by the rail system will not be resolved through politics. On the contrary, the MRT and other transport problems will be solved by politics once voters vote out of office the guys who ignored their problems all these years.
Trying to defend his years as a do-nothing DOTC Secretary, Mr. Abaya said “dapat hindi niya ho hinahalo yung technical problem sa politika dahil dito po sa technical mahalaga na ma-analyze mabuti para mahanapan ng maganda at maayos na technical solution.” But playing politics was exactly what they did when they awarded the maintenance of MRT 3 to a newly organized company with no track record, but owned by Liberal Party stalwarts. DOTC folks are only good at pretending to analyze problems but never coming up with solutions.
Indeed, Mr. Abaya was only a part time DOTC Secretary because he spent most of his time being acting president of the Liberal Party. Like Mar Roxas before him, Mr. Abaya’s principal concern was getting the attention and being in the good graces of P-Noy rather than fixing the MRT 3 problems.
It is laughable for Mr. Abaya to say that “maslalong papalpak ang MRT pag ganyan po anganalysis.” MRT 3 could not get more palpak than it already is… unless of course, he is thinking of a catastrophic accident where people will be hurt or even killed.
The thing with DOTC under Mar and Jun is that it is all about press releases and not enough performance. Last Monday they supposedly broke ground for the Cebu-Mactan Airport Terminal 2 even if we all know they couldn’t honestly get real work started. Abaya’s DOTC forgot to inform the Air Force they need the land they are now occupying for this terminal.
The only reason they rushed this “groundbreaking” is political. They want to say they broke ground during the term of P-Noy. Isn’t that a political reason? The award to build the replacement buildings for the Air Force was only done last month and they need at least a year to complete construction. Just there, we can see a year’s delay or after P-Noy’s term.
In advancing the ceremonial groundbreaking, DOTC’s Abaya, as head of the Liberal Party, wants to cover up his PPP foul ups. All his other PPP projects, including the LRT 1 extension to his home province of Cavite, also have some problem or another.
On LRT 1, P-Noy promised he and Jun will have a train run over them (papasagasa sa tren) if the extension is undelivered by just about now. They haven’t even broken ground.
Why did the MRT 3 situation become as bad as it is today? At the root of the problem is the Build Lease Transfer or BLT contract which the Ramos administration signed. The private sector consortium built the infrastructure, bought the trains and government through DOTC leased it. Ownership would be transferred to government after 25 years or by 2025.
So it is government managing MRT’s daily operations. The decision to charge a fare below break-even is government’s decision, more specifically Erap’s. The service took a turn for the worse when Mar Roxas, as DOTC Secretary, decided to change Sumitomo as the maintenance contractor. It was Abaya who eventually signed the order to proceed to PH Trams the new favored maintenance contractor.
Roxas justified his decision because Sumitomo was expensive, daw. But Sumitomo provided spare parts. The private maintenance groups Jun Abaya contracted were unable to provide adequate supply of spare parts even if the contract called for it. The mistaken decision of Roxas and Abaya resulted in a drastically reduced number of trains running.
Is that the technical problem Sec Jun is talking about? It may seem like a technical problem, but it is more of a management problem that is ultimately a political problem. It became a political problem because P-Noy did nothing even after the woes of the commuters were made known in both traditional and social media. Kinunsinte ni P-Noy yung mga palpak.
Indeed, it was not Binay who first noticed the political nature of the MRT problem. It was Grace Poe who went to ride the MRT one day, lining up for as long as any ordinary commuter would have to line up. She called it a fact finding mission, but she gained political brownie points for doing that.
The stupidity or incompetence of officials appointed by P-Noy is a political issue. Indeed the problems of the MRT and the lousy airports and port congestion could have been solved early on if the principal political leader, P-Noy, did something. But P-Noy protected his incompetent friends and that should be a political issue today.
The MRT problem, whatever Jun Abaya may think, has become a political issue. But VP Binay is also culpable for the problem because he was part of the same Cabinet and he remained quiet while commuters suffered.
Harassed commuters will express their frustration and disgust when they vote the incompetents out of office.
And oh yes, it is also a political issue that we pay LTO for car plates and stickers we don’t get, also driver’s license and don’t forget non enforcement of smoke emission tests (based on the great number of polluters we see on the road). All these problems are from an agency under the non-functioning DOTC.
Face it, Jun Abaya… you are an embarrassment and your agency’s lack of performance is a political issue!
Joey Salceda
A reader sent me this reaction to our item on Gov. Joey Salceda as a more deserving presidential contender from the Liberal Party.
This is an excellent initiative — bringing Joey Salceda and his bona fides to our attention. No sooner did I see his name did I realize: Now, why didn’t I think of him beforehand!
He is certainly competent. He comes with great skills set. He doesn’t have the dubious baggage that comes with a Duterte or a Binay or a Lacson, nor the neophyte aura of Grace Poe.
He’s well regarded as an economist and a technocrat, not as a trapo. A better prospect than the younger trapos Chiz, Alan Peter, or Trillanes.
Joey has amply demonstrated his leadership as a legislator and as a provincial executive — mobilizing people and communities, with good anticipatory and participatory approaches, especially for coping with disaster.
And he does not neglect the need for behavioral/ attitudinal change in people, such that they learn to abide by the law (e.g. complying with the 6-km off-limits zone around Mayon and promptly responding to exigencies), making preparedness habitual and proactive and not dependent on alarm-soundings and government initiatives.
Not least, he’s young and versatile as a multi-tasker with,presumably, a greater capacity for learning.
It’s understandable that no one in the Liberal Party has endorsed him. It may not sit well with Malacanang as Mar being its nino bonito. But someone should make the motion!
Another on Joey
From Cora dela Paz Bernardo – I agree with you about Joey. This was my conclusion when he spoke during the climate change conference organized by Bobby Romulo. Galing niya.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco
Source: http://www.philstar.com/business/2015/07/01/1471838/mrt3-lousy-airports-are-political-issues
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