MANILA, Philippines – Recent incidents of stone-throwing at the Philippine National Railways have drawn the ire of several netizens, including a former lawmaker.
Former Senator JV Ejercito took to Twitter on Thursday to show his dismay over the stone-throwing incident, retweeting a story from a website, with a thumbnail showing a few Indonesian-made trains, and another image of a train coach’s broken glass windows.
He pointed out that these public transport vehicles were obtained through taxpayer’s money.
This makes me very, very sad. We alloted taxpayers money to purchase the new trains only to be stoned! Nakakagalit!!!https://t.co/e5QPStsuon
— JV Ejercito (@jvejercito) December 27, 2019
In another post, he branded as “attempted sabotage” what appeared to be damaged cables and links under the train.
Attempted sabotage on the new PNR trains. Damaged cables and links under the train. Only one new train running as PNR tries to sort out this problem. pic.twitter.com/mHFlmUTpSa
— JV Ejercito (@jvejercito) December 28, 2019
The Department of Transportation has since clarified that these are not newly-shipped trains.
According to earlier reports, 14 incidents of stone-throwing were recorded from December 2 to 21. One happened in Barangay Canlalay in Binan, Laguna.
Ejercito’s social media outburst caught the attention of other netizens, who likewise condemned those who indiscriminately fling stones in the way of the PNR.
Motoring journalist and vlogger James Deakin on Friday night seconded Ejercito in his own Facebook page.
Other netizens chimed in on Deakin’s post, with some reactions ranging from mild to violent.
“Makasakay nga sa PNR. Magdadala ako ng gas. Susunugin ko mga bahay nakapaligid sa riles (I’ll ride a PNR train one of these days, I’ll bring gasoline. I will burn the houses along the rail tracks),” one of the comments on the post read.
“As a taxpayer, I feel robbed seeing this. This is just so sad. That’s why it’s very hard for PH to move forward because there are these people who resist advancement. Someone has to be accountable for this nang hindi pamarisan (so that they would not be emulated). If minors, then their parents,” another netizen said.