(NI KEVIN COLLANTES)

NAGPALIWANAG ang Department of Transportation (DOTr) matapos punahin ng Commission on Audit (COA) ang performance ng Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) noong 2018.

Sa pahayag, sinabi ng DOTr na bumaba ang bilang ng maaasahan at ligtas na tren ng MRT-3 nitong 2018 kaya’t nabawasan rin sila ng ridership at ng kita.

“Revenues require ridership, ridership requires trains, and it is unfortunate that the number of reliable and safe trains available to MRT-3 in 2018 went down due to years of neglect, bad maintenance practices, and failure to undertake scheduled overhaul and upgrading works,” pahayag pa ng DOTr.

“Years of mismanagement of MRT-3 resulted in the compounded degradation of MRT-3, which DOTr MRT-3 has successfully halted and stabilized in 2018, and which is being reversed with the 26-month comprehensive rehabilitation of the railway by Sumitomo-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) from May 2019 to July 2021,” ayon pa sa DOTr.

Binigyang-diin din ng DOTr-MRT3 na hindi kailanman ang ‘revenue maximization’ ang pangunahing objective nila kundi ang kaligtasan ng kanilang mga pasahero kaya’t simula nang mag-take over ang MRT-3 Maintenance Transition Team (MTT) sa pangangasiwa sa MRT-3, nang i-terminate ang serbisyo ng Busan Universal Rail, Inc. (BURI) noong Nobyembre 2017, tiniyak nilang ang bibiyahe lamang na tren ay ang mga ligtas at maaasahan para na rin sa kaligtasan ng kanilang mga pasahero.