By Leslie D. Venzon
MANILA, Jan. 7 (PNA) — Malacanang on Wednesday said the recently-implemented fare increases in the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) is not a way of collecting more money but earmarking funds for government projects that will benefit other regions in the country.
“This is not about raising taxes. This is about allocating funds from MRT to other areas or projects where we can also help the people who do not benefit from the MRT service,” said Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda in a Palace press briefing.
Lacierda said people in Visayas and Mindanao should also benefit from the taxes collected all over the country, a part of these are being used to subsidize the MRT ridership.
He stressed that the government has not removed the entire subsidy for train operations, but just reduced it from Php12 billion to Php10 billion.
“So that is a fair way of sharing the government funds and these are also, by and large, taxpayers’ money… As government, we have responsibility also away from Metro Manila. We also have to serve the needs of our countrymen outside of Metro Manila,” he added.
Nevertheless, the Palace official assured the public that the government will push through the implementation this year of the rehabilitation projects aimed to improve the services of the MRT system.
Lacierda said the conveyance facilities are targeted for completion by May, while the upgrading of the signalling system by August this year.
“The delivery of the LRVs (new light rail vehicles) will be finished by January of 2017; the 48 LRVs will be completed,” he said.
“There’s light at the end of the tunnel; that services will improve, the line will certainly be better than what it is now,” he added. (PNA)