The Hidden Agenda

Riding the MRT has been part of my everyday life. I had good and bad experiences.

I ride the MRT even if the travel is Guadalupe to Boni only. MRT is very useful specially when travelling from Makati going to North.

It's good to ride MRT because it is much cheaper and way faster than other transportation vehicles.

But it's not always good riding the MRT.

Once I have been a victim of cellphone snatchers while riding.

And note that there was a defective train overshot its tracks and ran past Taft Avenue station in Pasay last August.

Snatchers are expert thieves, they are not fair in life, they do not feel how we work hard for our cellphones. It is just easy for them to do this crime.

Just like riding the MRT, there are corrupt leaders in our country.

Just like the thieves, they do not feel the hardships of many people.

This coming 2015 Elections may we learn from our mistakes. Let us vote for the leaders who will bring great change in our nation.

The issue about the MRT buyout can be a reminder that we must need to choose.

DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya had so many announcements for the MRT buyout.

Without consulting his plans to Fil-Estate, Roberto Sobrepeña who heads MRT Holdings (before), he is confident on declaring his plans.

Many are doubtful about these, reports and opinions expressed that he has personal intentions with MRT buyout.

According to DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya, upgrading of MRT-3 is critical in order to improve our services to passengers in terms of both safety and convenience.

He says most of these projects will be completed in 2015 to 2016 under current timelines, which is why DOTC is already pursuing them separately from the buy-out.

It seems he has a very impressive plans but how come he is not okay sharing it to the person who heads the MRT Holdings?

He must be hiding something. Even senators are doubtful about his proposal.

Senator Chiz Escudero said over a Senate decision to remove the P53.9-billion appropriation for a government buyout of Metro Rail Transit-3 from its private owners, saying it will not improve the condition of the mass rail system.

Causes of Problems Revealed

After the series of MRT accidents and reported malfunctions, it has prompted an inquiry at the Senate.

And at the Senate hearing on the frequent MRTbreakdowns, Sen. Chiz Escudero asked Undersecretary Jose Lotilla why the government has not sued Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC) or MRT Holdings for defaulting on its duty to buy more trains when the present number has exceeded its original capacity.

Lotilla said the maintenance records were still with MRTC and the government was loath to file a case unless it had gathered sufficient evidence.

Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC) or MRT Holdings is the owner of the trains.

Department of Transportation and Communications chief Jun Abaya and Fil-Estate and MRT Holdings Chair Roberto Sobrepeña gave their respective sides on the sorry state of the mass rail transit system MRT 3.

DoTC ignored 3 MRT proposals to buy more trains

Records show that the DoTC received three proposal in 2004, 2008 and 2010 to buy additional trains.

Sobrepeña revealed that MRTC tried four times to buy new trains for the mass rail system as early as 2004, but DOTC never acted on the proposal.

After Sumitomo Corp. as original maintenance contractor was terminated in 2012, what heppened.

...train problems arises.

Sumitomo designed, built and maintained the MRT3 system under the principle of a single point of responsibility which supposedly meant that the Japanese firm guaranteed 20 trains running at any given point in time.

In 2012, the DOTC awarded a P517 million MRT maintenance contract to a consortium led by a company called PH Trams.

The government terminated the contract with Sumitomo in 2012 and it was a big factor to the MRT sorry state

The DOTC effectively lost the single point of responsibility that has now led to the question who was at fault?

Repots revealed that thhe three PH Tram incorporators:

• Arturo Soriano,
• Wilson de Vera
• Mario de la Cruz,

They were allies of Vitangcol (Metro Rail Transit general manager Al Vitangcol III) Soriano is an uncle of Vitangcol’s wife who mysteriously got out of PH Trams just before the company he founded got a half a billion peso maintenance contract. 

Engineering issues

Secretary Abaya defended the contract termination... that Sumitomo had raised its price from $1.4 million to $2 million a month but refused to guarantee its work of maintaining the system.  

At the Senate hearing, the representative of Autre Porte Technique Global Inc.(current maintenance operator) argued that it should not be blamed for the MRT3’s defects because the transit system’s problems:

1. trains stopping in mid-track
2. losing communication with base due to radio traffic interference
3. running with doors open
4. smoke emitting from a train while it is running

That hey were not linked to maintenance but to engineering issues... that it fell on DOTC's part. It was DOTC who was violating the BLT Agreement. MRT Holdings is the owner of the train line through the Metro Rail Transit Corp., or MRTC, while MRT3-DOTC is the operator under a 25-year build-lease-transfer (BLT) agreement with the owners. Reports says that MRTC should be the one to sue the DOTC for numerous violations of the BLT agreement. It has sued the Philippine government in the arbitration court in Singapore for nonpayment of numerous obligations.