Government should take control of MRT’s operations—consumer advocate

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

With the problems that are hounding the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), many were asking, who’s really in-charge of its operations?

The MRT 3 is operated by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC). Metro Pacific Investments Corp. has a 48-percent stake in the MRTC, which owns the assets of the MRT 3.

But just recently, the DOTC won a court battle over the MRTC, enabling the former to have the right to decide to buy new coaches for the MRT 3. While there has been also a proposal from the MRTC to provide additional coaches at no additional cost to the government, the DOTC is firm that they want to have complete control of the MRT 3 operations.

New coaches will arrive in February 2015, Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

A call to the gov’t to take control

On April 8, Tuesday, Elvira Medina, president of the National Center for Consumer Protection, urged the government to take control of the MRT 3 operations.

In a radio interview, Medina underscored that many coaches are not working properly because the supposed owners were not able to buy vital parts for the train system.

For Medina, it’s about time that the government reviews its build-operate-transfer scheme for vital utilities.

She added that the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), which is owned and managed by the government works more efficiently as compared to the MRT Corp.

With facts from Business Mirror