NEWS RELEASE
15 August 2013
If 91 per cent of members of the
Swiss Parliament report to work by taking the tram, why can’t Philippine
officials do the same, argued Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), one of the many
groups opposing the proposed P10 increase in MRT and LRT rates.
“If you can’t feel the pain, ride
the poor man’s train,” declared PM spokesman Wilson Fortaleza while reacting to
lawmakers’ defence that Presidential and public officials’ travel allowance is
not comparable to commuters’ subsidy since the former serves a distinct need
and upholds national interest.
The labor group, which earlier
disclosed the allocations of hefty travel privileges to government VIPs
compared to what millions of train commuters receive in travel subsidy, made
the challenge so public officials get a
real sense on how lowly paid workers suffer punishing experience in using the
mass transport system on a daily basis.
An online petition initiated by a
certain Dinna Dayao made a similar challenge to public officials. Also earlier, Manila Archbishop Luis
Antonio Cardinal Tagle called on lawmakers involved in the pork barrel scam to walk
around poor communities, and see how robbing the poor is akin to killing them.
Fortaleza argued that even with
the subsidy, commuters pay P15 for every crushing train ride while comfortable
travels of public officials are fully subsidized by taxpayers.
“We pay for VIPs air travel. And when they travel by land, they usually
travel in big, luxurious cars that we gas up,” said Fortaleza.
While the poor man’s
train, added Fortaleza, is witness to the economic plight of its regular
riders, citing a previous study which came out in Roel Landingin’s article in
Newsbreak, “LRT, MRT fare hike: Will the poor pay more?” In that
article, the income profile of regular train riders was presented as shown in
this table.
Income Profile of LRT/MRT Commuters
|
|
Monthly Income
|
% Share
|
None
|
14.9
|
Less than P8,000
|
29.7
|
P8,000 -- P10,000
|
23.1
|
P10,000 -- P15,000
|
19.6
|
P15,000 – P20,000
|
7.8
|
P20,000 – P30,000
|
3.5
|
More than P30,000
|
1.4
|
Total
|
100.0
|
Source: Mega Manila Public Transport Study, 2007
|
|
The study showed that 67.7 % of
LRT and MRT riders earned monthly incomes of less than P10,000 or below the
minimum wage and it was assumed that this was the reason why 70% of the riders
use single-journey tickets rather than stored-value cards
that cost Php100.
It also showed that even people
without income, perhaps most of them students, utilize the train and they
comprise 15% of the riders compared to only 1.4% of those whose monthly incomes
are more than Php30,000.
The group said the study merely reflects the
fact that Philippine growth is highly unequal, with the bigger share of the GDP
cornered by richest families. Half of
the labor force live under vulnerable conditions while close to three million
Filipinos is completely unemployed. More
than a third of employed persons are laborers and unskilled workers, therefore low-paid. Poverty incidence
remained at 28%.
The party reminded President
Aquino of his SONA pledge last July that Filipinos don’t have to wait for
growth to trickle down. “Sagarin ang opurtunidad para sa lahat,” the President
was quoted.
But
PM insisted that in the absence of full and gainful
employment in the country, the social policy must tip towards providing people
with a universal system of social protection, a policy being pursued by no less
than the United Nations (UN) and the International Labor Organization
(ILO).
“If the government cannot provide for free
social services, the least it should do is to ensure that public services,
including transportation, are accessible and affordable to everyone,” said
Fortaleza.
The P10 fare hike, he added, is definitely a
burden to minimum wage earners and lowly paid workers whose incomes cannot even
meet half of daily family living wage estimated to be at least P1,000.00.
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