DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / February 19, 2014
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Federation of Associations of Private Schools and Administrators (Fapsa) are at odds over the correct approach to the problem of horrendous traffic jams involving hundreds of thousands of private school-bound vehicles each day to be brought about by the start of the construction of 15 major road projects this year.
The MMDA proposed a four-day school week while the Fapsa proposed “carpooling.” I don’t see how either approach can work. The four-day school week does not reduce the number of vehicles while car-pooling reduces it only by half, at the most. The 15 road projects, in contrast, will constrict the roads involved by half or more.
For two decades now I have raised the need for private schools within the inner cities of Metro Manila to accept school busing of all their students and for government to organize a school bus consortium to equip this busing system with the latest safety, convenience, and security features.
However, echoes of Cory Aquino’s MMDA Chairman Elfren Cruz saying, “The rich will get angry at such a plan,” when he declined my proposal despite the concurrence of the Ateneo and Maryknoll school authorities with whom I had then tried to work, still come to mind. Former Quezon City Mayor Charito Planas, who supported my plan, wondered years later what ever happened to it.
I had proposed the mandatory school busing for private schools way back in 1992 to 1994 when the Metro Rail Transit was not yet running along Edsa. Now, we have the MRT 3 shuttling passengers between Taft and Monumento; and the Light Rail Transit from Muñoz to Baclaran, where one can transfer to LRT 2 at Recto to go to Santolan through Edsa-Cubao, where one can hop back to the MRT 3.
All these light rail systems, though, are already overloaded, especially the MRT 3 and LRT 1. I know because I take them regularly. The best and easiest solution to relieve road congestion is to bring both public and private transport passengers above the road. And for that to happen, the LRT-MRT system has to double its coaches.
MRT 3 was all set to almost double its number of coaches with the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) completing the requirements for the lowest cost bidder, Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Company Ltd., CNR group of China. Dalian bid P3.759 for 48 coaches, P10 million lower than government’s estimate. The Aquinos tried to swipe the deal said to have used Ballsy Aquino-Cruz and husband Eldon’s cronies Yorgo Psinakis and Jorge Aquino-Lichauco, with the Czech company Inekon, for double that price. Only principled MRT 3 management professionals stopped this before being heaped with calumnies by the Aquino conspirators. The DoTC team that visited Dalian to verify its capabilities appeared on my GNN show.
Obviously, Dalian Locomotive could prove its capabilities, which was why the awarding of the project was scheduled. But, as expected, a monkey wrench was thrown in by the cronies of this Yellow Aquino government. This group, which I shall call the MRT “Fangs Club;” loves the MRT so much because all of its vampire-players have been sucking dry the blood of the system, with exorbitant fares charged to the MRT’s 750,000 daily passengers in order to fill the P60/trip fare this “Fangs Club” had imposed in the contracts signed by Fidel V. Ramos.
BS Aquino and Mar Roxas lie when they say government subsidizes MRT passengers to the tune of P7 billion a year. That subsidy is to the “Fangs Club.”
With the prospect of 48 new additional coaches for millions of MRT passengers close to reality, the “Fangs Club” petitioned the courts to restrain the awarding of the contract to Dalian Locomotive on the grounds that it (the “Fangs Club” or the MRT Corp. consisting of the original “investors”), being the so-called substantial owner still with a Build-Lease-Transfer contract, should have the right to purchase the additional coaches and that Dalian’s capabilities are in doubt.
To wit, Dalian has over ¥10 billion in annual revenues; exports trains and coaches to 20 countries; and supplies the country with the most extensive network of trains in the world, China.
With capacity-building measures of the light rail systems in place (maybe dedicating some coaches at peak school opening and closing times to students), and in coordination with a mandatory school busing system to shuttle passengers to and from MRT-LRT stations (with special entry and exit areas), this system would be a permanent, far cheaper, and economical mode of transport.
Billions in wasted fuel of chauffeured students’ cars and precious road space (space occupied by one private car for one or two passengers could hold 10 or more in a bus) would be saved.
But, as those in power are the “rich” and can see the problem only through their own stupid eyes, the “rich” are an essential part of the current traffic problem, along with other problems of society in general.
(Watch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Federation of Associations of Private Schools and Administrators (Fapsa) are at odds over the correct approach to the problem of horrendous traffic jams involving hundreds of thousands of private school-bound vehicles each day to be brought about by the start of the construction of 15 major road projects this year.
The MMDA proposed a four-day school week while the Fapsa proposed “carpooling.” I don’t see how either approach can work. The four-day school week does not reduce the number of vehicles while car-pooling reduces it only by half, at the most. The 15 road projects, in contrast, will constrict the roads involved by half or more.
For two decades now I have raised the need for private schools within the inner cities of Metro Manila to accept school busing of all their students and for government to organize a school bus consortium to equip this busing system with the latest safety, convenience, and security features.
However, echoes of Cory Aquino’s MMDA Chairman Elfren Cruz saying, “The rich will get angry at such a plan,” when he declined my proposal despite the concurrence of the Ateneo and Maryknoll school authorities with whom I had then tried to work, still come to mind. Former Quezon City Mayor Charito Planas, who supported my plan, wondered years later what ever happened to it.
I had proposed the mandatory school busing for private schools way back in 1992 to 1994 when the Metro Rail Transit was not yet running along Edsa. Now, we have the MRT 3 shuttling passengers between Taft and Monumento; and the Light Rail Transit from Muñoz to Baclaran, where one can transfer to LRT 2 at Recto to go to Santolan through Edsa-Cubao, where one can hop back to the MRT 3.
All these light rail systems, though, are already overloaded, especially the MRT 3 and LRT 1. I know because I take them regularly. The best and easiest solution to relieve road congestion is to bring both public and private transport passengers above the road. And for that to happen, the LRT-MRT system has to double its coaches.
MRT 3 was all set to almost double its number of coaches with the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) completing the requirements for the lowest cost bidder, Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Company Ltd., CNR group of China. Dalian bid P3.759 for 48 coaches, P10 million lower than government’s estimate. The Aquinos tried to swipe the deal said to have used Ballsy Aquino-Cruz and husband Eldon’s cronies Yorgo Psinakis and Jorge Aquino-Lichauco, with the Czech company Inekon, for double that price. Only principled MRT 3 management professionals stopped this before being heaped with calumnies by the Aquino conspirators. The DoTC team that visited Dalian to verify its capabilities appeared on my GNN show.
Obviously, Dalian Locomotive could prove its capabilities, which was why the awarding of the project was scheduled. But, as expected, a monkey wrench was thrown in by the cronies of this Yellow Aquino government. This group, which I shall call the MRT “Fangs Club;” loves the MRT so much because all of its vampire-players have been sucking dry the blood of the system, with exorbitant fares charged to the MRT’s 750,000 daily passengers in order to fill the P60/trip fare this “Fangs Club” had imposed in the contracts signed by Fidel V. Ramos.
BS Aquino and Mar Roxas lie when they say government subsidizes MRT passengers to the tune of P7 billion a year. That subsidy is to the “Fangs Club.”
With the prospect of 48 new additional coaches for millions of MRT passengers close to reality, the “Fangs Club” petitioned the courts to restrain the awarding of the contract to Dalian Locomotive on the grounds that it (the “Fangs Club” or the MRT Corp. consisting of the original “investors”), being the so-called substantial owner still with a Build-Lease-Transfer contract, should have the right to purchase the additional coaches and that Dalian’s capabilities are in doubt.
To wit, Dalian has over ¥10 billion in annual revenues; exports trains and coaches to 20 countries; and supplies the country with the most extensive network of trains in the world, China.
With capacity-building measures of the light rail systems in place (maybe dedicating some coaches at peak school opening and closing times to students), and in coordination with a mandatory school busing system to shuttle passengers to and from MRT-LRT stations (with special entry and exit areas), this system would be a permanent, far cheaper, and economical mode of transport.
Billions in wasted fuel of chauffeured students’ cars and precious road space (space occupied by one private car for one or two passengers could hold 10 or more in a bus) would be saved.
But, as those in power are the “rich” and can see the problem only through their own stupid eyes, the “rich” are an essential part of the current traffic problem, along with other problems of society in general.
(Watch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)
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