Public should demand MRT fare rollback – Poe

There is no end in sight for the constant malfunctions and breakdowns experienced by the MRT-3 and Sen. Grace Poe, who has had enough of this, yesterday said commuters should do something about this.

Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public services, said she admired commuters for their patience in dealing with the daily horrors of trying to get to work and to school, but said they should start demanding results from their government.

To start with, the MRT riders could file a petition for the commuter train operator to roll back its fares due to its failure to deliver on its promise to provide better service.

Poe recalled how the Department of Transportation under then secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya raised the fares of the MRT-3 just before his term ended.

“We should file a petition. With so many problems being experienced, they should bring (fares) back to the previous levels,” Poe said.

“They claimed that the fares were increased in order to improve the maintenance but we have yet to see this,” she added.

Poe said the fare rollback would be a mere consolation for all the inconvenience that MRT riders have been experiencing daily.

“There should be some indignation from us now, otherwise we would be sending the wrong message, that those who are responsible are getting away with this,” she said.

On Friday, MRT riders were forced to evacuate the train and walk on the elevated railway when smoke emitted from one of the coaches.

Poe said the public should not just accept this as a normal occurrence when the people responsible for these problems have since retired and are enjoying themselves by traveling outside the country.

In the next public hearing of the Senate committee on public services, which Poe said would be accompanied by the Blue Ribbon committee, she vowed to hold Abaya accountable for the problems of the MRT-3.

“He is the reason for the never ending problems of the MRT,” Poe said.

“For those who benefited before, they should be summoned and when we come up with the committee report, if we have to implore the ombudsman, please charge these people and send them to jail because it is too much already,” she added.

As to the current Department of Transportation (DOTr) leadership, Poe said they should deliver their promises and act to address the problems of the MRT-3.

If they have to dispose of the incompatible trains they purchased from China, then they should just do so now and order new trains to replace them, she said.

Despite the daily technical problems and after last Friday’s incident, an MRT-3 official assured the public that it is still safe to ride the train line.

Michael Capati, operations director of MRT-3, said the commuter trains are safe as they undergo intensive repairs and preventive maintenance works before they are being deployed on the rail tracks for operations.

Capati took exception to last Friday’s incident where smoke emitted from underneath the seat of a train coach.