Metro Rail Accidents and Future Mishaps

The solution to the metro rail accidents and the gigantic traffic jam affecting Manila and nearby locales is a pipe dream. The decrepit mass transit system will stay the way it is, despite the fact that the Philippine public sector brags about purchasing the MRT transport utility for more than One Billion Two Hundred Million United States Dollars (US$1.2 B) using taxpayers’ money.

On the other hand, the media hype and the traffic drama arising from the so-called overstocking of container vans in Manila is just that: part of a telenovela.

The elite and finest Manila Police District alone, all on its very own, can solve the problem about the so-called crisis that took the entire government months and weeks and too many conferences, overt and cloaked, to solve.

It is a simple problem, ask the Manila Police that holds the time-honored distinction of being almost all of Asia’s silent university for solving traffic management problems or any other traffic-related concerns – were it not for the hidden intentions to prolong the bull shit about over stocking and causing single vehicle stalls that create 5-hour or more traffic jams unheard of in the history of this country. Just because of a simple 1-truck stalling incident. Not particularly defensible nor justifiable at all, Your Honors.

Supposedly a gargantuan problem besets the Philippine Mass Rail Transit system that is one of the sectors dominantly held and controlled by foreign interests.

What does Anglo-Philippine Holdings mean to you? To the average rail commuter? What does MRTHI mean to any of us? Or the banks LBP? DBP? Nothing, obviously, except that they own 100 percent of the Metro Rail. On the other hand, the government now completely owns and runs the Light Rail Transit – that is no longer in private hands.

These entities Anglo-Philippine Holdings, Metro Rail Transit Holdings, Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines and other closely linked institutions determine the life of every commuter that steps on board an MRT coach.

For those injured in the recent MRT mishap at the Pasay Terminal, look for the people behind Anglo-Philippine Holdings, Metro Rail Transit Holdings, Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines, et al to sue. With the incumbent regime officials on their side, taking their defense while at the same time stabbing their backs.

So now the government is ending the back-stabbing and the enormous shame that goes with it and claim the MRT as a public sector asset. Remember what they say when a utility is in public sector hands? Its transactions will reek of corruption so the government determines to unfollow and unfriend the model of U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Europe and others in privatizing government assets.

The regime of the late Madam Corazon Aquino started the privatization frenzy in the Philippines. This was followed by the succeeding Philippine presidents since and now Mr. Aquino wants to buy back the debt to Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC), a subsidiary of Metro Rail Transit Holdings (MRTH) which in turn is co-owned by Anglo-Philippine Holdings also peculiarly known as the APO.

What is in store for the MRT riding commuter? More accidents? Real to goodness mass casualty incident where a train smashes through a throng of vehicles and people involving no less than fifty to a hundred dead and two, three hundred injured?

And all because you can’t buy newer more functional coaches, ride more people, allow unsafe buses, jeepneys and shuttle vans to dominate the transport system.

Buses are no longer allowed in city streets in Metro Manila.
But lobby money keeps flowing and they continue to terrorize
the streets of Metro Manila with abandon threatening to kill
at any time with the government always looking the other way.

For the favored few under this regime, quislings or significant others, their fortunes will balloon, as in the time of the late Madam Aquino when all of a real sudden too many shining, brand new abodes kept springing up in large numbers in exclusive enclaves of the rich and announced as the trophies of the late Madam’s sycophants, lickspittles and doormats. Good for them, meanwhile the troubles that await the poor riding public are one too many.

Railways Incidents

Fourteen years ago, during the presidency of now Mayor of Manila, Joseph Estrada the Light Rail Transit (LRT) was subjected to serious and deadly assault from supposed terrorists. In a series of fatal bombings coinciding with the commemoration of the martyrdom of Dr. Jose Rizal on December 30, 2000, the most critical being on an LRT coach, twenty two people were killed and more than one hundred were seriously injured.

While there were purported arrests made of the perpetrators, up to this day, the real culprit has not yet been identified and placed behind bars. Some culprits may even be very successful and honorable today and no longer qualify as persons of interest.

For now, the incident may have maimed, wounded, injured only a few recently. Will this change? Will there be more in the future? Will there also be some foreigners thrown into the fire so the accidents will become international incidents? No one know as of now, but it will be a little more clear in the near future.

It is not difficult to surmise that if the gods get crazy they might just plant bombs in the trains like in the December 30 affair.

Yet this is not the worst part of the story.

Lobby money

There is big money in keeping the mass railway transit in its fledgling, skinny, malnourished state. The same regime generating pecuniary assistance and other gains from visibly cooperating generously and extremely cordially with the private owners of the MRT on the surface instead of keeping it in line (note the severely deficient performance of the maintenance contractor hired under this regime among the other defects in management) is also the very regime that gets friends-with-benefits from the lobby of the bus and other public transport utility companies servicing the same routes as the very aged, old and feeble Metro Rail – or as it were even the LRT and in some sense, also the PNR.

The security system of MRT and so with the other rail operations (LRT, PNR) sucks. Much money goes into skim and all the add-ons on the third party private security provider contract are never declared as the very freebies that the contractors brag about in their technical bid documents.

For the average riding public, they are not aware that the compulsory restricting ersatz at the terminals by security personnel are merely going through the motions of providing security. While useless items are banned from being brought into the riding platforms, no one is ever certain that the real bootie of terrorists will be detected and the suspects will be identified.

Can the security CCTV actually capture distinct images? Or are the freebie CCTV cameras simply analog pieces that won’t even measure up to cheap built-in cameras in pirate china phones? Was the MRT recent accident viewable in the MRT security CCTV video databank or no?

The riding public is in a lot of trouble riding those death machines. But the masses are helpless, so they will ride and ride and ride to their end up to kingdom come.

Tightened knot

Public Transport Utility companies have been given the marching orders to stay out of Metro Manila under the Philippine law but this is not happening.

The lobby by bus and jeepney operators is so palatable such that damned the riding public, if the mass railway transit system will die, to hell with the consumers, to hell with the public sector, Buses and Jeepneys will ride their merry way through all over Metro Manila railway routes and kill the mass railway transit system.

Jeepney accident in Makati City ABC Commercial complex.

In Marikina City nearly on the same period, 11 people were killed

in a similar jeepney accident. Nowhere are commuters safe from

these coughing, deadly machines equipped with truck engines.

So if government itself and its partners in the public utility transport companies are killing the mass rail transit, we ask again, why will government purchase the MRT? That’s the Billion Dollar question.

And its sicker than bombing 22 people to death and maiming, wounding more than one hundred others.

More than Fifty up to nearly Seventy Billion Philippine Pesos will be used to buy only the MRT, and as a result, the Philippine Government and the public that owns and finances its humongous expenditures (including DAP, family full twenty reasons for appointments and regular skim, Cabinet’s own safe keeping activities, Drilon’s multi million fancy houses, Congress’ diligent profitable Housekeeping and other shenanigans) will not even own a single dream railway coach.

With more than Fifty up to nearly Seventy Billion Pesos, it would be nice to have at least one coach similar to the bullet train for the public to enjoy riding in – instead of suffering in those running coffins that have open-close-open-close viewing windows for the bereaved to see their dead relatives.

No less than half of the Philippines populations’ one hundred billion people will be elbowing each other just to ride that one bullet train coach. Imagine the staggering revenue of servicing fifty million souls at fifty pesos per ride. (Bullet train ride will not come cheap, so fifty Philippine Pesos may be charged instead of just more than ten Philippine Pesos.)

But the bullet train, better be safer than riding in the MRT veritable death traps.

If you are an MRT riding commuter, in the space of months to more than a year under this regime you could possibly end up in a real coffin if the public sector does not get their act together and be more transparent.

Losing for gains

It is not the lack of political will that the railway system is not being allowed to grow and therefore with better revenue, to improve its services dramatically over time.

Despite the fact that the railway transit coaches are always loaded to the rafters, this is the not the actual expected captive market for the system. Much of the commuter market is siphoned off by the secondary public transport utility services made up of buses, jeepneys, contract point-to-point minivan shuttle taxis, contract big van shuttles. Many contract point-to-point shuttle vans are even prowling the streets without licenses to operate issued to them from the government.

Contract fare Mini Van Shuttle figures in accident.

Too many of these utility vehicles are not even licensed

to navigate the streets of Metro Manila or the suburbs.

Thus, the greatest weaknesses of the Mass Rail Transit is that there are fewer than the desired passengers it can service, and therefore little justification for acquiring new coaches.

Ergo, without new coaches, no definitive growth for the railway service provider, except that the corporation that owns it, is already assured of money back guarantee by the government with fifteen percent profit once these owners appear to lose heart and place their money elsewhere.

For this reason, there is overload in nearly all coaches during rush hour and this might give a semblance that it is the real one and only mass transport choice of the people. It is definitely not.

Clearly the urban rail transport under both the Phillippine National Railways (PNR) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) I and II, started projecting sales that in terms of predicted income appear to be palatable to investors, there has been no realization of the plan to restrict buses outside the busy streets of Metro Manila.

When the project Metro Rail Transit (MRT) came off the drawing board it was launched at a time when there was anticipated greater losses than its pioneering counterparts. Just because there was absolutely no niche for the railways commuter services system in the Philippine transport market, as there is no room for railways cargo transport in the country.

What was supposed to be the Master Plan, along with the construction and installation of more railroad lines beyond the current 3 lines of PNR, LRT I and II and MRT. The original intention for the Philippine Rail sector was to build a network of more or less eight (8) rail lines (Lines A - H). Up to this time, only the three are in functional existence despite too many offers to build the same -- including building subway lines.

But there is the skim and the lobby funds to seriously think about before allowing the railways transit system to go forward.

Meanwhile, the regular dude and chick that goes to the train terminal each day and at limited hours at night and in the early hours of morning, have no inkling that a few unregular, scheming business people and managers of the regime are playing gambles and cashing in chips by the billion dollars simply because the foolish public keeps riding and riding the train to their possible final journey. They are so clueless they can’t even think about the best wording for their last will or for a quaint epitaph should they figure in a sham accident.

Train rams jeepney. This should not happen if jeepneys are plying routes

outside of Metro Manila busy thoroughfares and railway routes.

Source: Rebus 21

Themes: Accidents, Future Mishaps,Anglo-Philippine Holdings, bribery, corruption, DAP, dirty politicians, Metro Rail Transit Corporation, illegal public transport

Everyone, Warmest Greetings!

A Message for President Aquino, Secretary Abaya

Open Letter to His Excellency Benigno Simeon Aquino III, 

President of the Philippines

and Honorable Joseph Emilio Abaya, Secretary

Department of Transportation and Communications

Dear President Aquino and Secretary Abaya:

Between 1989-1990, we began the advocacy for a Philippine safety agency that led to the passage of the Republic Act to create the NTSB - National Transportation Safety Board.

Shown below is the reconstruction of the briefing on the need to operationalize the National Transportation Safety Board. We revised the briefing over and over again. The updating of the voluminous data on accidents over land, to include actuarial and statistical computations of the probabilities of new accidents for extended, extrapolated periods, is not included since it would be too tasking for us and we do not have the resources nor are equipped any longer to undertake the job.

In the past, we were fortunate to be working with a foreign counterpart - the Harris Corporation Florida USA, a conglomerate with over 100 companies under its wings, that allowed us to opportunity to campaign for the privatization of the then Air Transportation Office's ATS (Air Traffic Service) as well as to push for the creation of the Philippines' transport safety agency.

- Original proponents for National Transport Safety Board 1994

Speeding and bad road structure

Yahoo: CCTV shows Don Mariano Transit speeding before tragedy

From yahoo.com, a video shows that the killer bus owned by the Don Mariano Transit that took 18 lives of its passengers was on a speeding frenzy prior to the accident, the report says.

The authorities reviewing the video say the bus was running at more than 100 kilometers per hour while at the point of the accident the speed limit was only 80 kilometers per hour.

Bad road design and structure in RP

A comment by "A Yahoo User" on the video sourced from ANC, says thus:

if one where to look closely at the footage, one can see that there was water in the path of the bus. What does this mean? I believe that the swerving may be the cause of hydroplaning.that and the speed of the bus i believe could be the main causes of the bus falling

By design, the coupling of speeding vehicles and bad road designs and structures that are common in poor or developing countries are a mortal combination. Compounded with dilapidated vehicle features and parts - that as claimed by the Skyway administration was evident in the Don Mariano Transit bus unit's totally bald tires with treads wholly worn away - the accident was bound to happen.

Safety on the Road

Recently, one of the buses of Don Mariano Transit figured in an accident where it is reported that 18 people died (see photo below).

Photo Credit: Manila Bulletin, December 16, 2013 by Michael Varcas

The attention of everyone, especially our government officials, is most earnestly called towards past proposals, suggestions, recommendations, encouragement, admonitions, for making transport safety a key concern of the public sector.

At this time, whether or not the Philippine Government under Pres. Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino the 3rd will listen to all these unsolicited advice will be the determinant of the future of public safety on the streets of the country, sea and ocean lanes, and the Philippine air ways.

One of the hundreds of proposals on transport safety became a certified legislation of the Ramos Administration in 1994-1995. It was an executive order draft that instead was forwarded with strong endorsement by former President Fidel V. Ramos to the two houses of Congress to be made into Law due to the inclusion of a component providing for changes in users' fees and charges in the transportation industry.

Because Congress holds the power of the purse and is the only one mandated to create taxes, fees and charges that will be levied upon the public, Congress was the last stop of the proposal for transport safety. Under the late Pres. Corazon Aquino, the same proposal was submitted to Malacanang because of the need for a Philippine council on Safety - or any kind of agency concerned with Safety in general.

If we look at our Philippine Government's structure, there is a myriad of government units, offices, bureaus on safety. From the Department of Labor, Health, National Defense, Transportation and Communications, and the list goes on and on. Despite this however, or because of too many duplicating functions, there is a seeming confusion as to who will be responsible for this and that concern on Safety.

Hundreds of world, international, regional Conventions, conferences and Workshops are held all over the the globe on Safety. The United Nations, cognizant of the value and importance of the universal concern of Safety, has elevated its status consistently from low to a very high Category under the UN Structure.

Therefore a single agency, unifying at least a wide array of safety concerns and lessening the duplication and conflicts of functions of too many agencies under the bureaucracy was proposed.

Out of these proposals, at least one was favored to become law: the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) Act that came about due to the strong wording by Malacanang stating that the proposed law was part of its certified legislative agenda for the period.

That certified priority legislation under the Ramos administration, became law. Secretary Vicente Rivera, past head of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) disclosed that former Congressman Manuel A. Roxas III and Senator Franklin D. Drilon were very instrumental in making the draft bill become law.

During her tenure in Malacanang, the late Philippine President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, appointed a lady by the name of Emilia Boncodin to the post of Director at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Eventually, Ms. Boncodin rose in the ranks and became Assistant Secretary, Undersecretary and yet was the source of complaints from too many sectors due to her insistence on ten percent (10%) commission or kickback for herself when it became her turn to be the one to release the payments to government service providers. When the supplier-contractors could not produce the cash, Ms. Boncodin will hold the payment hostage in return for a post-dated cheque or any other debt instrument, bank note that will ensure her 10% kickback will be paid.

However enormous and tremendous were the monies earned by this Boncodin in the past due to the immense, uncontrollable power of hostaging and illegal detention of the DBM, Boncodin refused and returned the enacted and signed (by President Ramos) Law creating the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to Congress.

Her reason was that DBM did not have Fifty Million Philippine Pesos (Php50-M) to cover the operationalization of the NTSB into a functional office. While amassing more than a few billions in office, Boncodin refused to fund Php50-M for the NTSB Law.

As if she was above everyone due to her powers of hostaging and detaining legally mandated payments to service providers this official showed she was also above the law by refusing to implement a law and execute the provisions stated therein - the main crux of which was to put a national transport safety board in operation.

Today, the Congress is doing some backtracking and it is not known if this act is to save the butt ugly face of the late Boncodin. An administration allied and a few other legislators filed the bill purporting to create a National Transportation Safety Board in July 2013. The Congress information appears like this:

CONGRESS BILL NO. HB00004

FULL TITLE : AN ACT CREATING A NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES SHORT TITLE : National Transportation Safety Board Act BY CONGRESSMAN/WOMAN BIAZON, RODOLFO G. DATE FILED ON 2013-07-01 CO-AUTHORS: BICHARA, AL FRANCIS D. TAMBUNTING, GUS S. ORTEGA, FRANCIS EMMANUEL R. HERNANDEZ, FERDINAND L. DEL ROSARIO, ANTHONY G. REVILLA, JUAN JOHNNY R. REFERRAL ON 2013-07-23 TO THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION SECONDARILY REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE(S) ON TRANSPORTATION  SIGNIFICANCE: NATIONAL
DATE READ: 2013-07-23

Now our question is this: Why will a Representative at Congress file a new bill to create a law that has been passed before - in 1997-1998?

Why will Congress create an agency that has been created by said Law already promulgated in that period and was just refused by Boncodin and returned to Congress?

Perhaps the reason why some governments are damned is because the truth keeps getting twisted. The proper actions are not taken. Real respect for the life of the single Filipino appears to be the least concern of some administrations, for which reason they are doomed to be cussed and hated by the majority of the people.

What we need at this time, is for Congress to just exhort Malacanang and revoke the return transmittal of Boncodin, then implement the law that the dead former budget and management secretary threw back at the face of Congress and Senate and the Philippine President who signed the approved bill into Law.

Please, let us avoid more new mishaps, whether it be on land, sea, or air.

Thank you, Congress and Senate, if you will do that. And to the Congressman who re-filed the bill on NTSB, it is most dearly hoped and prayed that the honorable Congressman kindly please finds something better to do.

Advocacy articles on transport safety past by title and tagline:

Open Letter to Philippine President on Transport Safety

Resource Recovery Movement: tagline tansport, Boncodin

Archangel blog: tagline transport safety, Emilia Boncodin

Rhea Elizabeth Lou blog: tag safety, former Sec. Boncodin