The MRT in PeNoy's Wonderland

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
08/02/2010



“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” — Alice, Alice in Wonderland.

When I hear PeNoy and his spokes-platoon I am pulled into the vortex of Lewis Carroll’s topsy-turvy Alice in Wonderland world. PeNoy’s Sona speech was a walk through a “House of Mirrors” twisting images of the real world. On electricity rates gouging, he reported it as stemming from National Power Corp. (Napocor), we showed incontrovertibly that it's the devious privatization program, the Epira which privatized Napocor’s profit centers and its profits to private corporations, while it nationalized and socialized Napocor’s costs and debts. He also discussed the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and its financial and fare subsidy problem, in another Alice in Wonderland storytelling:

PeNoy’s Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) secretary and Lopez gofer, Jose “Ping” de Jesus, has been jawing about how much MRT commuters are being subsidized by government. It’s made to appear that the commuters must feel guilty about this subsidy and expect the pain of an MRT fare hike. De Jesus says the subsidy is P40 per commuter, which means there could be up to P40 additional to today’s fares — or a 200 percent increase! I feel they are just raising the ante to P40 so when the real increase comes of 25 percent or 50 percent, the commuters will sigh in relief and welcome it. But the truth is, many commuters just won’t be able to afford any increase at all — which can mean students not being able to go to school, more workers downtime, less load on the MRT which will mean bigger losses for government again.

How did the MRT go so badly? The so-called investors in the MRT projects, the oligarchs, supposedly raised equities and loans of around $660-million for a total of P22-billion — but all these were taken out on the back of the “sovereign guarantee” of the Philippine government, i.e. the Filipino people and taxpayers; government also provided a 15 percent guaranteed profit to the investors. The investors also got: 1) a quantum increase in real estate values of these so-called investors, 2) the humongous increase in “captive” sales to these investors in their malls and commercial centers where the MRT stations are diverted to (remember the controversy with the Ayalas, which forced the MRT station on its intersection though this is a most inappropriate area), 3) they also got all the advertising values, and 4) the “right-of-way” on Edsa for nothing!

The financial hemorrhage of the MRT started from the drafting of the contract between the so called investors, Metro Rail Transit Corp., and the Philippine government. It was concluded under the notorious BOT-manic President Fidel Ramos. The terms were onerous, one-sided and adverse to the public interest from the very beginning. The guaranteed 15 percent profit was computed on the basis of an overpriced far, over-estimated traffic volume. There was no way the MRT could even break even with these conditions. Why did FVR and the DoTC then allow 15 percent profit, why not demand 5 percent or 3 percent since this is guaranteed anyway; but the corporate and bureaucratic swindlers’ wiles and greed knows no bounds. All other public mass transit systems in the world are planned on the basis of public service and as a component of the overall economy, and not for profit.

PeNoy and his Cabinet men are making it appear that “subsidy” for the people is a problematic thing, but they seem to think nothing wrong in subsidizing the oligarchs behind the MRT swindle. They are even insinuating that the lowering of the MRT fares in 1998, which was ordered by President Joseph Estrada, to be an error that caused the MRT’s financial problems. Truth is, practically no one was using the MRT in 1997 because of the exorbitant rates the investors set. Commuters started streaming into the train carriages only after Estrada lowered it because they could finally afford the fares. Over 10 years later, through convoluted arguments the private MRT owners in cahoots with a corrupt government and a clueless administrator retired from the PNP, finagled a buy-back from government funded by the DBP and Land Bank for P2.5 billion.

The PeNoy government and mainstream media are waylaying the public with Alice in Wonderland depictions: “‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’” (Through the Looking Glass) Who is subsidizing whom? In PeNoy’s World, it is clear the oligarchs are the masters. For us, the people’s welfare should rule. Justice William O. Douglas, referring to the US, copied by the Philippine elite: “Our upside down welfare state is ‘socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor.’ ‘The great welfare scandal of the age concerns the dole we give rich people.’”

(Tune to Sulo ng Pilipino, M-W-F 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; watch Politics Today, Tuesday 8 to 9 p.m., Global News Network, Destiny Cable, Channel 21: “Meralco overcharging since 2007” and other power issues, with former Mayor Jun Simon and Nasecor’s Pete Ilagan; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com)