Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat and Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
Opposition lawmakers hailed as “noble” the decision of Undersecretary for Rails Cesar Chavez to resign from the Department of Transportation (DOTr) “out of delicadeza” amid the problems hounding the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3).
Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat Jr. said it was honorable for Chavez to step down as an “offshoot of his agency’s incompetence in improving the MRT operations.”
“It sends a message of personal accountability for one’s actions and for that I praise him,” Baguilat said in a text message to reporters on Thursday.
Baguilat said Chavez might have felt that the agency failed to live up to the administration’s promises of immediately improving the MRT-3, and this could have prompted him to resign.
READ: DOTr Usec. Cesar Chavez resigns over MRT-3 mess
“This is in stark contrast to his other colleagues’ penchant of continuing to blame the officials of the previous administration for the MRT woes,” he said.
“Filing inappropriate plunder cases doesn’t make the trains run better. Better management and purchase of newer ones do,” Baguilat added.
The DOTr recently filed a plunder complaint against nine former Cabinet members in the Aquino administration before the Office of the Ombudsman over alleged anomalous contracts for the maintenance of the MRT-3.
Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin, meanwhile, said Chavez’s resignation was already a “fait accompli” as it happened under the Duterte administration that “plays the blame game over issues of efficiency in governance.”
Villarin believed that Chavez’s resignation had to happen to appease the public.
“Someone’s head had to be in the chopping block,” he said.
“Usec. Chavez’s good intentions can’t hide a government that is leading us to nowhere,” he said.
Villarin then said the MRT-3 mess is a collective problem that goes all the way up to Malacañang.
“It was a campaign promise to be solved in the short run just like the campaign against illegal drugs,” he said.
In announcing his irrevocable resignation from the transportation department, Chavez said the DOTr cannot always blame the past administration for the MRT system problems “because this is already our responsibility.” /kga