The derailment of the PNR train from its station in Paco, Manila should serve as a wake-up call for its safety management and enforcement, Senator Grace Poe said.
“We have had incidents of derailment of PNR trains every year, and it’s simply unacceptable,” said Poe, chairperson of the Senate public services committee.
“We don’t want to see passengers getting offloaded and made to walk along the rails. Let’s have a public transportation system that will bring the people to their destination and back to their homes safe and unscathed,” she added.
She urged the Department of Transportation to investigate the derailment.
“We are calling on the Department of Transportation to seriously enforce strict inspection and maintenance of the PNR trains, considering that a number of them are already old,” Poe said.
While the administration has lined up ambitious infrastructure projects involving railways in the next few years, Poe said the government must ensure that the current PNR fleet is reliable, comfortable and safe.
As this developed, Poe urged authorities to look into the “bigger picture” on the inspection of vehicles before being issued registration or franchise amid reports that some bus companies have bribed corrupt Land Transportation Office officials.
Poe said she received reports about the rampant practice of “no-show” or “non-appearance” of vehicles seeking new registration or franchise or the renewal of the said documents, as well as during emission tests.
“Information that reached us said that in paper, motor vehicles undergo and pass the test, but the reality is a number of them were never tested,” she said.
She stressed that a complete inspection of vehicle, including emission test, is a requisite to annual registration.
“If indeed true, then we can only imagine that because of this corrupt practice in the LTO, many vehicles, in whatever condition, can ply our roads, putting in peril unsuspecting passengers and commuters,” Poe said.
“Is there even an effective way of checking the road worthiness of vehicles already on the streets?” she added.
The senator welcomed the 30-day preventive suspension slapped by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board on Dimple Star after 19 people died in an accident involving one of its buses.
She urged the LTFRB to take into account the number of accidents in the past where Dimple Star buses were involved.