President Benigno S. Aquino III administers the oath of office to former Congressman Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya as the new Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication in a ceremony at the Reception Hall of the Malacañan Palace on Thursday (October 18, 2012). Abaya finished his elementary education at the De La Salle University (DLSU) in 1979. He was a consistent honor student during his secondary school years at the Philippine Science High School (PSHS). He topped the entrance examination for the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and was sent by the government to the US Naval Academy (USNA) in Annapolis, Maryland, USA where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics in 1988. Abaya proceeded to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, USA and completed his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering in 1989. He also studied law and received his Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), School of Law in 2005 and was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 2007. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – A consumer group filed a complaint against Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and three other members of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Bids and Awards Committee over the impending new ticketing system for the MRT and LRT, a project worth P1.1 billion.
Atty Oliver San Antonio, legal counsel of the National Federation of Filipino Consumers, said that one of the affiliates of the winning bidder, AF Consortium, has a pending case versus the Philippine government in an international arbitration tribunal in Singapore, a violation of existing bidding rules.
The AF Consortium, composed of Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp., submitted a bid of P1,088,103,900 for the Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) project.
San Antonio is referring to the case filed by Ayala-led Manila Water with the International Chamber of Commerce challenging the order of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System to cut its rates.
San Antonio also said that the winning bidder’s contract may result to higher fares for the riding public because of a condition set by the winning bidder that they will only pay the balance to the government if ridership increases to 2 million to 4 million when recent studies show that ridership is only around 1 million.
Another reason for higher fares is that the since the ticketing system will be privatized, government subsidy will no longer be implemented.
The MRT-LRT single ticket is envisioned to be like Hong Kong’s Octopus Card, which serves as a debit card, aside from being a stored-value train ticket. The single ticket could also be used for other modes of transportation such as buses, paying toll, electronic banking, and even shopping.(MNS)