It is sheer coincidence, we know, but it is much too tempting to link Monday’s filing of graft charges against former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya before the Office of the Ombudsman to the stoppage of the Metro Rail Transit Monday morning because of a diaper caught in its power lines.
Abaya is facing charges for entering into a contract that was grossly disadvantageous to the government. The agreement was with the joint venture of Busan, the complaint said, but it was the entity BURI that was performing the maintenance work and receiving the payments.
“We want to know the truth,” said Transportation Undersecretary Reinier Paul Yebra.
The truth is, this should have been done a long time ago.
Abaya, including his bosses at that time including former President Benigno Aquino III, are all accountable for the mess that Metro Manila commuters find themselves in.
In the curious incident involving the diaper, tens of thousands of rush-hour commuters were stranded as train service stopped between Taft Avenue and Boni Avenue stations. In some stations the passenger queue spilled onto the next block, as what happened at the Quezon Avenue terminal.
Soon after the service resumed, southbound passengers were offloaded at the Shaw Boulevard station because one of the doors would not close.
It’s hilarious, that bit about the diaper, but we don’t think anybody among those stranded thousands were smiling—the mildest among them were probably only shaking their heads in resignation.
Resignation, however, is not the appropriate reaction here. Neither is blame. The present administration took over nearly 16 months ago—between June 2016 and today, what did it do apart from ascribe accountability to its predecessors? That so much time has passed and that the condition has persisted—nay, worsened, says a lot about what the present crop of leaders are not doing. Forget the previous officials—they will have their day in court.
A misplaced diaper may well be a metaphor for everything that is wrong with our public transport system. It is obvious who should clean up the mess, but not at all apparent why nothing has yet been done.