DOTC must prove it can ‘deliver’ with request for P6.6B subsidy for MRT–Recto

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MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) may have to go through the eye of the needle when it defends before the Senate its proposed P6.6-billion subsidy for the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT) for 2015.

Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the chamber will assess if the MRT can deliver on the “promissory note” it has attached to its request.

“We would like to know if by giving the P6.6 billion, the DOTC can redeem on its promises,” Recto said in a statement on Friday.

“I think the budget hearings to be called by the Senate will be some sort of diagnostics session on what ails the MRT and what its cures will be,” he said.

Recto said the requested taxpayer support for the MRT’s 13-station, 17-kilometer line was lodged in two items in the DOTC’s proposed P52.9-billion budget for 2015.

First, he said, is a proposed P1.92 billion for “operation and maintenance” of the MRT, and the other is the proposed P4.66 billion budget for “subsidy for MRT 3.”

“In addition, there’s a special provision in the budget of the DOTC that allows the agency to use ‘farebox revenue’ and ‘non-rail collections’ in settling MRT’s operating requirements and prior years’ obligations,” Recto said.

“In exchange for this amount, the DOTC is promising to reduce transfer time from 10 minutes to 5 minutes and decrease its load factor by 8 percent,” he said, quoting from the proposed 2015 national budget Malacañang has sent to Congress.

For the whole rail sector, Recto said, the DOTC is targeting an average speed of 48 kilometers per hour, a 90-percent on-time schedule and 4.48 million passenger kilometers traveled every day for 2015.

“As to service disruptions, it is keeping the number of what it calls ‘passenger unloading incidents’ to under 300 for the whole of 2015,” said the senator.

Recto noted that beginning 2013, the Aquino administration has attached “countable performance indicators and final outcomes” to every allocation it is asking in the national budget.

For the current year, Congress, through the national budget, has authorized P4.09 billion as subsidy to the MRT.

On top of this, he said, was a P1.81 billion allocation for its operation and maintenance.

“I think we should also look if the public is getting value for the money it is giving MRT this year,” Recto further said.