Just when you think no one else can out-nonsense Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio “Jun” Abaya with his “traffic does not kill” remark, now comes along that other Malacañang mouthpiece, Undersecretary for Communications and Strategic Planning Manuel Quezon III. More effective when he kept a low-key, low-profile role as Undersecretary for Communications and Strategic Planning, Nonong Quezon was probably pushed to the forefront by the other Palace talking heads who have run out of defensive doublespeak. Hey, why are we taking all the heat? Nonong should do some of the talking; let him take the flak. Poor Nonong, his illustrious family name has been tarnished for mixing with bad company.
Here’s what the fourth man in the Malacañang miscommunication team said the other day in defending the daily breakdown of MRT-3: “There are just too many commuters taking the train!”
Then, Quezon goes on to put down senator and presidential candidate Grace Poe’s threat to sue Abaya for criminal negligence and awarding of questionable MRT service maintenance contract. Here’s MQ III’s classic comment: “She’s a senator, why doesn’t she just file the necessary legislation to solve the public transport system problem?” Or something to that effect.
What? Duh! That’s what government is supposed to do. With its vast and awesome powers, government doesn’t have to wait for legislation as long as it acts to provide public service. Providing a mass transit system is what a government is expected to do for its taxpayers. Too many commuters? I have taken the public railway systems in London’s underground tube, the Paris Metro, New York’s labyrinthine subway and their commuters cannot be any less than our 500,000 daily on work days. Their trains are longer from the number of carriages compared to the six, now nine, wagons MRT has on every run. Nearby Hong Kong and Singapore’s underground rail system may not be as intricate as in the three other cities mentioned, but they run efficiently.
It’s troubling to one’s train of thoughts when he thinks about the mass transit system government was supposed to fix after nearly six years in office. On the day DoTC announced the harnessing of trains bought from the Chinese company Dalian and the awarding of the service maintenance contract to the Korean-Filipino consortium, the MRT broke down right away because of a non-working signal light or a crack in the rail.
Former MRT general manager Al Vitangcol, who has been indicted by the Office of the Ombudsman for graft in connection with the anomalous service maintenance contract, wants the Sandiganbayan to make available to him the records of the case. Vitangcol has a right to the Ombudsman’s case records. He wants to know why Abaya has been absolved while he has been indicted when Abaya has overall supervision of MRT Line 3 operation and final approval of all bids and contracts it entered into.
Senator Poe is also asking the same question why Abaya, the ruling Liberal Party’s acting president and in effect its chief campaign fund–raiser, has not been included in the Ombudsman’s case against Vitangcol. The answer, dear senator, is that Abaya is Aquino’s fair-haired boy while Vitangcol is the designated fall guy.
Then DoTC Secretary Mar Roxas recommended Abaya to succeed him when he moved over to DILG after the untimely death of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo. Metro Manila’s motorists and commuters will never forgive Roxas for giving us Abaya. That will cost Mar Roxas about three million voters in the National Capital Region who are suffering from the horrendous traffic and poor mass transit system.
So, whenever Mar mouths Aquino’s “daang matuwid,” voters of Metro Manila can only seethe and curse the “daang masikip.”
With Mar Roxas not gaining traction among voters, team Aquino is putting together Plan B, or is it Plan P? We all know who and what P stands for, di po ba?
Poor Mar, they’re digging the ground from under him again. Roxas is actually the most qualified to serve as president but he’s closely identified with Aquino. That’s like having an albatross around your neck.
A bit of historical footnote: The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini came to power by promising to make the trains run on time and he delivered on his word. The officials running our trains are running away with taxpayers’ money—and the trains don’t even run right.