Father of Philippine rail transit

"That's Eli Levin, my friend."

During the first four-year term of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, I met an Israeli named Eli Levin who had married a Filipina.

He was introduced to me as the one who conceived the first Light Rail Transit, and who later on convinced Transportation Secretary Totoy Dans to start the first transit railway system under the Marcos administration. This was a time when Marcos was also beginning to build the North Luzon Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway.

Eli succeeded in convincing Secretary Dans, who also succeeded in convincing the President to build the first light rail transit in the country.

After the Marcos regime, Levin came up with the idea for the MRT 3 that runs along Edsa from Quezon City to Pasay.

It was at that time when Levin, through mutual friends, told me that his main problem at that time was financing the project. He had some willing friends, but he needed more money.

Somehow, he managed to convince the Ayalas to join MRT 3 and finance it subsequently, which made the project push through despite so many objections from the residents of Dasmariñas Village and Forbes Park. They said it would pollute their area. This was why MRT had to be underground in areas near these villages.

Eli, a resident of the Philippines for the past 40 years, told me in confidence that he and his associates submitted to then-President Gloria Arroyo his largest transit plan, this time for the MRT 7, to start from San Jose del Monte in Bulacan to end in Quezon City. It would have nine stations, running along Commonwealth Avenue and on to Edsa. Eventually it would connect to MRT 3.

While Levin managed to sell the idea to foreign investors, there was need for the majority to be owned by local investors. That became a problem for him and his associates.

The MRT 7 project went through the eye of the needle in both the National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Finance. Still, financing was its biggest problem.

During the Aquino administration, somehow Levin was able to convince Aquino’s biggest campaign contributor, Salvador “Buddy” Zamora, one of the three wealthy Zamora brothers, to buy into the MRT 7 project. But, my gulay, it seemed that the money of Zamora was not enough to convince the Aquino administration to approve the project.

It was at this time, close to the end of the Aquino administration, that Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel saw the potential of MRT 7 such that he bought out Buddy Zamora to finally finance and build the MRT7.

Having succeeded in building an expressway from Tarlac all the way to Pangasinan and this year to La Union, Ang believed that the MRT 7 project was both viable and doable. Now the MRT 7 is no longer a dream but a reality. Ang is now even planning to extend the project all the way to Bocaue, Bulacan.

As for his TPLex project, my gulay, Ang is now even planning to extend it to Ilocos Sur.

Unfortunately, Levin, after living in the Philippines for almost 50 years, died last year. At least he succeeded in realizing his vision to put up rail transits here in the Philippines. If there is anyone who can claim to be the Father of Philippine railway transit system, it would be Eli.

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There is a new phenomenon happening here. This is the case of imported Chinese criminals who have come as tourists and foreign workers in the more than 100 POGOs here. They victimize their fellow nationals in kidnapping-for-ransom schemes.

There are real criminal syndicates from the Chinese mainland who somehow manage to bring in Chinese prostitutes to cater to Chinese clientele. Just how they do it is something to wonder about. Santa Banana, either the Bureau of Immigration personnel are in on it, or the Chinese criminal syndicates are just too clever that they get away with it.

I have two questions: First, why have these criminals from the Chinese mainland made the Philippines their playground? Second, why have they prospered?

I asked some of my Chinese-Filipino friends. It appears that the Chinese syndicates believe they can get away with it because the perception among these mainlanders is that Filipino law enforcers are easily bribed. It could also be that law enforcers neither care nor mind.

This does not speak well of Filipinos. This means our image is not good.

Let’s go back to what has been happening with President Duterte’s pivot to China, and the relaxation of visas for the Chinese who enter the Philippines as tourists, with the visa-upon-arrival policy.

We may not realize it, but the presence of POGOs—with hundreds of them not paying taxes because they are operating illegally—have contributed to the presence of criminal syndicates nationwide.