Fare hikes and substandard "improvements"
is itself "Wrecking" and "Sabotage"
is itself "Wrecking" and "Sabotage"
"The hikes approval likes a thief in the night." These are the words said by the "Train Riders Network" (TREN) over the proposed increase which is approved amidst popular opposition. As most people are busy preparing for the coming Yuletide holiday, the said increase, which will be enforced next year, means exploiting its commuters in an attempt to have the private sector take over urban railway networks MRT and LRT.
According to TREN, it views this fare hike approval as its Christmas and New Year gift of President Benigno Aquino III and DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya to the incompetent MRT private owner and private contractor John Sobrepena, as well as to the new LRT overlords who bagged the deal to take over the profitable, more-efficient and state-run LRT. The increase may also pave way to possible yearly increases, in an attempt by the government to make it "self-sufficient", that actually means reducing government subsidies and eventual privatisation of the said venture.
That somehow meant for existing private partners like Sobrepeña and newbies in the mass transport scene like Cojuangco and Ayala as craving for profits and exploiting its commuters "in the name of development." At first it may sound reasonable a dire need for a fare increase with words like "common good" for an alibi, but with unjustified reasons being stated by TREN and other groups, isn't it that obvious for a profiteer and its patron to turn public welfare into a mere income generating venture at the expense of affordability or even its eventual ruin in favor of cars and buses MRT and LRT commuters resort to ride on?
Unrepentant Wreckers indeed
(thanks to its apologetics)
With the latest reports from Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) describing MRT as unsatisfactory, TREN described it as "unsurprising" especially with its mismanagement of the rail network and its effects like the accident happened a month ago.
Likewise, it lambasted the Aquino administration, as well as the private sector whom benefits from gaining subsidies yet continues to mismanage that led to its unsatisfactory rating, as according to TREN spokesperson James Relativo:
"When their criminal neglect exposes the riding public to a clear and present danger, do we not bleed? We are commuters -- humans capable of feeling pain once cramped into a speeding tin can. We are angry tax payers ripped off their good money everyday..."
Indeed, citing the fact that substandard "developments" are being shown despite being subsidised and the greater number of commuters using it, but instead making more harm than good. But for this writer, sorry for being "hardcore", their actions taken by these people is plain and simple act against the state. That Mr. Sobrepeña and the Aquino administration's action over MRT are making a bureaucrat-compradore conspiracy involving wrecking and sabotage to justify their intent. Such terms this writer had stated may sound quite "Stalinistic" since it was commonly used in the former Soviet Union (and those terms are crimes pubishable by death if not hard labour!), but in seeing such actions made by these people comes this kind of accusations worth punishable. Yes, they did it against the public, they approve their intention to increase fares just to fill more in their pockets, in their corruption, with "development" made for the sake of impression, a façade called "progress."
How come it is wrecking and sabotage being done by these self-proclaimed "men of progress and development?" It is Wrecking in a sense that it aims against deliberate, efficient functioning of distributing efficient social service like those of Mass Transport (and hence created waste of taxpayers money indeed!); it is also Sabotage, in a sense that the persons emphasised in this writeup are carelessly executing their duties in maintaining trains, improving the network's efficiency despite giving taxpayers money called "government subsidies" and gaining "profits" from increasing commuters due to "its cheap, affordable fares."
And the increase? Like any other typical compradore acts, shows the profiteering nature of those claiming to be serving the interest of the public, worse, making a series of damages so as to justify the attempt; that somehow made TREN, Mr. Relativo, and other concerned groups, and commuters in general ceaselessly condemn them. Why on earth Sobrepeña gain profits amidst mismanaging the MRT? And isn't it that stupid for a government who babbles about public service to "laissez faire" MRT and LRT to the self-interest profiteers who are being lambasted? Privatisation or any other similar terms that was once praised has been ostracised the way its ringleaders being pelted by criticism!
And to those whom favoring the increase with the repeated mantra of "improvement", the increase in fares does not mean improvement particularly those of repairing trains and making anything efficient; obviously, they would have likely to agree letting it alone, "laissez faire" in the hands of the profiteering few who banners the welfare of the people yet actually de-emphasises it like those of Winston Castello.
And if they continue babble their mantras, does these people also remember companies like Meralco? MWSS? Petron? These three were once "under government supervision", adhereing to regulatons and policies that caters to public interests, and yet end reverted to private control with its deregularization, and in private control comes commercialization and unjust increase in prices amidst so-called "improvements" and the stuff being bannered by these self-interests. To theirs it means improvement, but to most it is sabotage for it fails to guarantee the interests of the people, worse, they do the dirtiest jobs to justify their intention to increase their profits using what is supposed to be for the well being of the public.
Today, TREN continues to confer with its legal team on the possible legal actions to take not just against the fare hike but also against those who irresponsibly gave their approval. It also called on the Aquino administration for the immediate junking of "onerous" and "questionable" concession agreements, and demanded the government takeover of the facilities both existing and proposed like the MRT-3 project. For TREN as well as other groups concerned, Aquino's Public-Private Partnerships is all but a correct term for inconvenient ones like "Privatisation" and "corruption". Yes, moneybag compradore-bureaucrats like Sobrepeña and Abaya, as well as Cojuangco and Ayala is yearning for taking over social services as well as kickbacks resorting to substandard development.
And sorry for these people on high, but since they approve the proposal of filling pockets and making substandard developments, then it is likely to become a problem as protests would dare these people, Scrooges so to speak, to awake from their fetish of profiteering, exploitation, and wrecking.