More ‘Great Train Robberies’
(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 03-18-2015 WED)
“That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.” – Noam Chomsky
We just have to revise the Chomsky quote to expand on the last part; that is, after people get angry and have been bamboozled into believing there’s no alternative to privatization, the “you” (government captured by corporate oligarchs) then spends to rehabilitate the utility with public funds and raise rates or fares just prior to handing it over to private capital--saving the latter the rehab and political costs.
This is what happened to the country’s power, water, and transport utilities (from toll ways to trains) the past 29 years since Cory Aquino and the Yellows started the privatization onslaught in the Philippines.
Now it’s the once legendary Bicol Express, the 1920s-era Manila-to-Calamba-to-Southern Tagalog Philippine National Railways’ (PNR) turn to be subjected to the Third Degree of “make sure things don’t work.” Only 6 of 50 PNR trains are working. With its revenues dwindling, its privatization commences and government funds are allocated for rehabilitation and acquisition of new engines and coaches. P35.15 billion from 2005 to the next years from the General Appropriations Act (GAA) are allocated.
Predictably, fares are being raised by 30 percent even as PNR General Manager Joseph Dilay let loose massive revenue leakages (thousands don’t pay fares) and contractors with conflicts-of-interest.
It is reported by Riles Network--the watchdog group over the Philippines’ public train systems, which has numerous PNR labor union sources--that a major PNR contractor for maintenance services and supplies (having shades of the MRT 3, the DoTC-Liberal Party Mafia, and the Kamag-anak Inc. scandal) is owned by a direct relation of the present PNR manager. The wife is alleged to be a prime contractor of the PNR, clearly an abhorrent situation. The Senate and Congress would be complicit if they allow this situation reeking of corruption and nepotism to persist before even considering any action on PNR fare hikes or, worse, privatization proposals.
The most sensitive issue to the hundreds of thousands of commuters on the Tutuban-Calamba PNR route is the 30-percent fare hike, raising the minimum fare of P10 to P15 and the maximum fare of P45 to P60. Bus fares from Calamba to Manila, by the way, cost at least P100.
PNR management says that, yearly, revenues amount to P330 million while costs total P683 million. The PNR, however, receives subsidy from government annually ranging from P300 million to P400 million. Therefore, PNR revenues are sufficient to cover its operation and maintenance despite the massive leakages, as admitted by the PNR management, when it said that the fares increases will be allotted for payment of financial obligations.
Details of the PNR debt has not been reported to the public but GM Dilay said in a Feb. 27 news item, “Everyday na hindi namin nai-implement ‘yan, palaki nang palaki yung lugi. Kung maari, bukas na…” (Everyday the fare hike is not implemented the debt grows; if possible fares should be hiked tomorrow…) But reports reiterated on my GNN TV show by “Strike the Hike Network,” another citizens’ commuter trains watchdog against the PNR fare hike, attests to the fact that PNR stations are so disorganized and unruly, and ticket checking is totally absent that thousands get on the trains literally for free--burdening the paying passengers instead.
Where did that PNR debt emanate from? Why did the 29 years and four governments of the Yellows (excluding Estrada, which did not serve out even half its term) allow the deterioration of the PNR to such a degree that only 12 percent of its train assets are operational? The PNR is the last of the Philippines’ train system to be given attention to the past 30 years, now only to conveniently highlight the crisis it’s in and justify the rush to privatization.
But we’ve all seen what disaster privatization has turned out to be in the MRT 3, and now the LRT 1. Last Monday, I waited by an LRT 1 coach for 30 minutes, while avoiding the MRT 3 due to its safety issues.
Noam Chomsky, the renowned American social justice activist, really put the finger on the method behind the corporate and corrupt political system to steal public utilities from the people. The “Great Train Robberies” of the Philippines under the 29-year regime of the Yellow oligarchy and privatization are really testing the limits of the people’s patience and sufferance. It may yet prove to be the railroad to revolution.
(Watch GNN, Talk News TV with HTL, every Sat. 8pm and Sun. 8am replay Destiny Cable chn. 8/ Skycable chn. 213 – uploaded to You Tube, search Talk New TV… date; tune to 1098AM, Tues. to Fri. 5 to 6pm “Sulo ng Pilipino”)
