MRT-LRT rate hikes unjustified—senators

President Aquino’s legacy no doubt will be marked by high prices in goods and services in which he made no effort to stop them from rising too much.

He has announced that he will be removing the subsidy in the riding public’s fare of the Metro Rail and Light Rail Transit (MRT-LRT), which automatically translates to higher fares that the rail transits will be charging the commuters. Oil prices have been jumping weekly, and neither has Aquino made any move to talk to oil firms for them to slow down on the price hikes. Nor has he suspended the eVAT imposed on oil companies, for the prices of petrol to go down.

In the case of the the removal of the commuters’ subsidy in the rail transit, Aquino claimed that it is unfair for taxpayers who are non Metro Manilans to continue to pay taxes for the subsidy of Metro Manilan commuters.

But one of President Aquino’s allies in the Senate yesterday pointed out the lack of any justification in the government’s move to reduce subsidy in the commuters’ fare of the MRT-LRT, which will result in a rate increase soon.

Sen. Ralph Recto said that while people in provinces contribute to subsidizing the MRT-LRT riders’ fare, the bulk of the government’s revenues that finance infrastructure and other projects of the administration still come from Metro Manila residents.

Furthermore, Recto said, it is still the Metro Manila residents that cover most, if not all, of the fare subsidy.

“People in the provinces are not even complaining nor are they up in arms over their supposed subsidy of MRT-LRT riders in Metro Manila, because it’s not true,” the chairman of the Senate ways and means committee said.

“No one in the province, such as in Batanes, Batangas or in Capiz, Tarlac and even in Tawi-tawi is subsidizing a rider in Metro Manila. In fact, it’s Metro Manila that is subsidizing the P39.4-billion CCT program that would benefit most of the people in the provinces,” Recto added, referring to the controversial multi-billion conditional cash transfer program of the government for 2012.

“When we were campaigning, not one from the ARMM ranted about

their supposed subsidy of the MRT-LRT fares,” he added.

The senator’s statements came in the light of the Palace officials’ claims that taxes collected from people in the provinces are being used up to continue subsidizing the commuters’ fare.

Recto, along with several other senators have already expressed strong opposition to the planned increase of MRT and LRT fare and in fact, some of them are now firming up a consensus to block the impending fare hike.

Sen. Joker Arroyo earlier said that some senators are preparing a resolution that would ask the government not to proceed with the planned fare and toll increases.

Recto said, in fact, it’s the other way around since most of the taxes raised by the government are contributed by folks and industries in Metro Manila, which are then plowed back to the poor provinces.

He said taxes paid by Metro Manila residents are returned to them in the form of fare subsidies that run up to P6 billion to P8 billion a year.

Of the programmed tax revenues of P1.445 trillion in the 2012 budget, the bulk would be delivered by people in Luzon and, specifically those in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Recto noted that in 2010, Metro Manila cities of Quezon, Makati, Manila and Caloocan contributed P281.8 billion of the P337 billion that was collected from the 19 revenue regions of the Bureau of the Internal Revenue (BIR).

He said even the combined tax collections from Bicol province down to Tawi-Tawi only amounted to P56.2 billion – which paled in comparison to the Quezon City’s collections of P75.8 billion.

He further said the aggregate P23.5 billion taxes collected in five Mindanao revenue regions in one year only represented the eight-month collection performance of the city of Manila.

“And remember the LTS – Large Taxpayer Section – which collected P457 billion in 2010 is NCR-based and a great chunk of this is attributable to income generated in Metro Manila,” Recto pointed out.

On a practical note, Recto reiterated that raising fares would only worsen the traffic situation as more riders opt to go down to take buses for their short trips in order to save fare money.

He said this would further swell up Edsa and even create more pollution as operators deploy more buses to take advantage of the avalanche of riders.

The senator pointed out that raising fares in MRT-LRT during these hard times would be squeezing dry the Metro Manila-based middle class residents who are the “pistons” of the economy.

“We are squeezing the people in Metro Manila — the middle class, particularly the professionals, office workers and students,” Recto said.

He said the timing is off since inflation or cost of goods like petroleum and electricity is relatively high while the economy hardly grew in the second quarter of the year.

Recto nevertheless said there is no urgency in raising the MRT-LRT fares.

“I’m not against raising the fares but there should be an improvement first in the service like additional rolling stocks or coaches. Caving in to a fare increase now would be tantamount to rewarding inefficiency,” he said.

He also said the urgent things to do are to close and operationalize the “loop” between the MRT and LRT systems and improve the service by cutting down long lines and turn-around time.

“The best way to raise revenues is to make the economy grow, create more jobs and send people back to their work,” Recto stressed.

Economic growth has slowed down considerably, said to be mostly due to the administration’s underspending of the budget. No infrastructure project has been started since Aquino took power.

But speaking before a provincial group, Aquino, an economist, claimed that he would rather underspend than go ahead with the corrupt contracts entered into by his successor.

The Senate will issue a resolution urging Aquino to suspend the impending imposition of VAT on toll and fare hikes on mass rail transit systems in Metro Manila, Sen. Joker Arroyo said Wednesday.

At a press conference last Thursday, Arroyo said that there is already a resolution being circulated among senators that would urge Aquino to suspend the impending fee increases. “The idea is not to proceed at this time. Not now. Life is difficult these days,” he said.

He echoed the sentiment of Sen. Manny Villar that the government does not need to increase the fees it is charging the public because it is not even spending its budget.

“The government has no right to impose additional charges or taxes that burden people if in return they will not spend the money that they collect,” said Arroyo. “When the government taxes and the citizens pay, the citizens expect that the money they give to the government should be spent (on) them.”

It is estimated that daily, there are around 500,000 commuters that take the MRT from Quezon City to Pasay City while the LRT Line 1 also has over 500,000 commuters. Ther LRT Line 2 is also used by 250,000 people.

The LRT and MRT are also known to keep on bogging down, and is said to be run inefficiently.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto and Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero also rejected the Palace justification for eliminating the subsidy to commueters and also for Aquino not to even try to persuade oil companies to go slow on their oil increases.

Sotto was quoted as saying that Malacañang could take a leaf from the Arroyo administration under similar circumstances, saying that the former President appealed to the major oil companies to slow down in imposing price increases.

Then sitting President Estrada always made an appeal to the oil companies not to raise the prices of oil too much and think of the hardship the Filipino people undergo everytime there is an oil price hike. –Angie M. Rosales, Daily Tribune