Senators unhappy with DOTC

Two key senators expressed disgust over DOTC’s seeming lack of interest in developing the country’s rail network.

In a hearing late last month on the renewal of PNR’s expiring charter/franchise, Senate President Protempore Ralph Recto and Sen. Cynthia Villar, who heads the Committee on Government Corporations, took turns to denounce DOTC’s failure to appreciate the importance of a fully functioning railroad system to the country’s economy.

Said Sen Villar: “I am surprised… DOTC parang wala silang pakialam... gusto ninyo bang i-renew iyong franchise or gusto ninyo nang i-liquidate ang PNR? Iyon ang tanong ng lahat kasi walang interes whatsoever… Walang kumakausap sa akin maski isang tao. I have been here since July of 2013, nobody has talked to me about PNR. And I’m so disappointed. Dapat magbago kayo diyan…”

Sen. Recto: “We filed this bill even without the DOTC coming to see us asking for an extension. In fact, until now your Secretary has not called me or called the chairman of the committee pushing for the extension of the PNR…  interesado ba ang Executive branch na i-extend ang franchise ng PNR or extend its charter or may balak ba kayong iba tungkol dito?”

Both Senators took turns in underscoring the vital importance of PNR and noted with sadness how it had been abandoned on the back burner by past and present administrations.

Sen Recto: â€œMaliwanag na napabayaan ang PNR. I mean, 50 years na ang franchise ng PNR… We started with a rail line of 1,100 plus kilometers. Today you are operating 50 kilometers only and we have not heard anything from the DOTC on what plans as far as PNR is concerned. We hear some plans with the MRT and the LRT. We have not seen anything off the ground and here you have a situation that the PNR in two months’ time tapos na iyong charter, hindi ba? Is someone minding the store? That is the point.”

Both senators have a right to express disgust. DOTC over several administrations has proven to be quite a failure. And the failure in rail is nothing short of colossal.

JICA senior consultant on transport Shizuo Iwata, as I earlier reported in this column, observed that we were better off during the tranvia glory days in the 1920s. We had 85 kilometers of rails then compared to just 50 kilometers now. Normal countries can expect progress. In our case, the retrogression in our transport infrastructure is scandalous.

A respected Filipino expert in transport systems estimates the need for at least 300 kilometers of rail lines in Metro Manila alone in the next 15 years. “It is hopeless,” he told me, “because DOTC can’t even build a f*cking four kilometer rail line to extend LRT 2 to Antipolo before P-Noy bows out of office.”

Sen. Villar asked the DOTC representative for long range plans or even an idea of what will happen to NorthRail. Nothing could be presented.

 Sen. Villar: “I have not seen in any of your plans … there is no plan as far as PPP and the PNR is concerned… It is not in any list…ang Pilipinas, out of 148 countries surveyed, the Philippines is No. 89 with a very low score… we just want to be updated, ano ba yung plano ng North Rail in the future? Will it be part of PNR or they will do it on their own or they will dissolve North Luzon Railways? So, can we ask from the legal counsel of the North Rail para mag-explain?”

And the North Rail legal counsel, lawyer Jonas Pedroso stumbled for words trying to explain the unexplainable. Here is the transcript:

MR. PEDROSO. We are still seeking of—actually, North Rail has written several letters to DOTC regarding some directives, Your Honor, about its plan for the North Rail project, Your Honor.

THE CHAIRPERSON (SEN. VILLAR). So, hindi ninyo rin alam kasi hindi kayo binibigyan ng direction ng DOTC?

MR. PEDROSO. Yes, Your Honor.

Villar wonders if DOTC understands that railroads provide affordable transportation for the masses as well as a reliable farm-to-market linkage. She observed that the remaining 50 kilometers of rail are all in Metro Manila.

To the credit of the current management of PNR, they made a valiant defense of why PNR deserves a renewed charter and franchise. They explained how PNR is still trying to do what it can in the light of its crippling limitations.

Here are some of their management statistics: PNR served 20 million passengers last year in their Tutuban to Sta Rosa run… that translates to some 55,400 commuters daily. This year, they are serving some 80,000 to 100,000 commuters daily who pay P25 for the entire run.

They claim that the subsidy taxpayers pay per passenger served is P32, compared to P34 for LRT and P45 for MRT. PNR supposedly earns P200 million in rail revenues a year and another P180 million from rentals on PNR assets, mostly land. They have an annual deficit of P200 to P300 million, the PNR managers claimed before the Senate committee.

They have big plans for PNR, the managers told the Senators, once they get their renewed charter and franchise. The new general manager of PNR once sought me out in a diplomatic function to explain to me that contrary to reports, PNR will bring back service to Bicol. This is why, he told me, Rep Leni Robredo is helping get the charter renewed. But the priority is the commuter service because this is where some ODA money and PPP interest are.

PNR had been a badly managed company through the years. There is even a pending corruption case discussed in the Senate hearing against a former general manager involving the undervaluation of a property sale.

But the current general manager seems competent and committed enough to get PNR back to the days when it had over a thousand kilometers of rail lines from Damortis, La Union to Legaspi, Albay. But I doubt anything worthwhile will happen in the last two years of P-Noy.

DOTC has already demonstrated its inability to plan long term. It also showed its difficulty in awarding projects. As shown with how they are managing MRT 3, DOTC is only capable of ad hoc, patchwork kind of solutions.

Remember how the MRT GM on a whim, introduced buses to augment the MRT trains? But he caught everyone by surprise, include his boss, Sec Jun Abaya. The buses also got into trouble with MMDA traffic enforcers. Now, he is introducing articulated buses as a desperation move. He knows his problems in MRT 3 will only get worse.

Given the fact that the legal problems will hobble anything they want to do, from getting new rail cars, fixing the tracks, signaling system, etc., they ought to be more imaginative.

Maybe, the solution is to think in terms of a new mass transit system. But this they must do in cooperation with the private owners of MRT 3 and whoever can provide the alternative system.

I am thinking about converting the rail-based system to BRT. Make the buses in a BRT configuration run on the present MRT superstructure. I have seen such systems abroad.

I asked the group of Francis Yuseco Jr to crunch some numbers and what they came up with seems promising. Francis says replacement of the existing MRT/LRT lines is doable, cheaper and easier to do than even waiting for the new Chinese rail cars to be delivered.

Francis said his engineers “estimate the dismantling, reconstruction and rehabilitation will cost P20 Million per kilometer for both lanes totaling 3.5 meters per lane. Thus, for a 22 kilometer elevated carriageway as in the EDSA MRT, the total rehabilitation and reconstruction costs for the elevated carriageway will be a very manageable P440 Million.

“The coaches carrying 200 passengers each will cost P12 Million each. Say, we start with 100 coaches or 50 coaches per direction plus your command center of P50 Million incorporating your pre-board contact less system, plus miscellaneous and contingent costs of another P50, we’re looking at a total replacement cost of roughly P1.8 Billion.”

Best of all, Francis claims they can make the BRT operational in 8 months. “Using the numbers made by the UPTTC in 1989, using only 92 coaches, we can transport 1,056,000 passengers a day, about double the current load.”

I know the bureaucratic mind is incapable of changing plans or thinking fresh. But given our desperate situation, we need bold initiatives from our national leaders. Otherwise, our situation can only get worse because increasing population increases demand on services every day.

I realize nothing will happen, but I thought I could help by offering fresh ideas, seeing that there is hardly any thinking or action of whatever kind coming out of DOTC. The DOTC Sec is too busy playing Liberal Party politics to properly supervise the bureaucrats under him to produce results quicker... a lot quicker.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco