MANILA, Philippines—An activist group said on Wednesday the botched fare hike for the Light Railway Transit and the Metro Rail Transit could have been used to beef up the pockets of the investors of the train systems.
Riles Network said the fare hike was a “prelude” to the trains’ privatization.
The group added the cancellation of the fare hike by the Department of Transportation and Communicatio is a “temporary retreat” for President Benigno Aquino III whose popularity, as the group claims, has been bludgeoned due to the recent issues in the pork barrel.
They said the President knew the fare hike in the LRT and the MRT would intensify the public anger that he currently faces.
“It would send the signal that his government indeed favors big capitalists over the Filipino public,” the group said in the statement. “It would send the signal that his government is making the people’s suffering worse.”
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