Unusable

This is the final word: the rail cars purchased from Dalian by the previous administration could not be used by the MRT. The specs just don’t match and the heavy trains will probably cause the viaduct to collapse.

It did not require a rocket scientist to figure out the specs and produce the right trains. All that is required is basic engineering knowledge. But the DOTC and their Chinese counterparts flubbed it anyway.

I have been trying not to think about Jun Abaya for months. It aggravates me no end. Now I wish the man and his boss did throw themselves before an onrushing train as they promised to. Doing so would have given all of us some sense of redress.

For months, Abaya kept us at the edge of our seats, teasing us with the impending arrival of the trains he ordered. The prospect meant more trains along the constantly choked Edsa. Spellbound, we thought we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the torture chamber that is the MRT.

When the trains started trickling in, we found out they had no motors and no signaling system. They could not be kicked into service. But we waited and waited, hoping the new trains might soon be refitted and relief at the overloaded commuter line might be forthcoming.

Now we are told the trains really could not be used. On the day this ugly truth was announced, the MRT broke down five times in a day.

Long before the contract to produce additional trains was signed by Abaya and his Chinese counterparts, we were warned that Dalian is not a light rail manufacturer. True enough, they delivered overweight trains. They were like heavily armored battle tanks mounted on rails. They might sooner crash the system than deliver commuters to their destinations.

Senator Grace Poe says we should now try to return the trains to the faulty manufacturers and try to recover the P3.5 billion or so DOTC paid for those trains. I am not too confident this could happen. The Chinese company will likely take us to litigation and prolong the agony.

Meanwhile the MRT line will remain short of trains and long on queues.  It will take many long years for us to put out a new contract for commuter trains. The hundreds of thousands of commuters who cram the system, endure the long lines, sleep for only three or four hours each night before battling to commute the next day might not live long enough to see new trains on this system.

Abaya, we recall, once shrugged off the traffic problems saying they are not fatal. The hapless commuters wanted to lynch him there and then. What wrong have we committed against the heavens that we were sent this scourge of a public official?

Abaya is also the one responsible for breaking up the contract for the LRT-2 extension to Antipolo. As a result, the viaduct was built without passenger terminals. Now, Marcos highway is congested a second time because of construction work on the terminals. It is hell repeated for residents of the affected areas.

He is likewise the official to blame for the continued absence of a common station. The Arroyo administration rushed to close the loop between the LRT-1 and the MRT lines to ease commuter movement. But the common station was not built. It will remain like that for about three more years.

Now that the “Abaya trains” are junked, what do we do with the man who presided over the “Noynoying” that retarded the onset of an efficient mass transit system in the metropolis?

I know a number of people who are itching to lynch him. But that would constitute extra-judicial killing and the unfunded Commission on Human Rights will frown on that.

Unfortunately, utter incompetence is not a crime listed in the Penal Code. This is why Abaya and his boss continue to roam free.

Privatize

What do we do with the mess that is the MRT?

Experts say the system was wrongly designed from the start. It is not really a light rail system. It is some sort of hybrid between a light rail and a trolley line. This is the reason why the parts of this system do not seem to cohere.

Then, somewhere along the line, the train line was put under the worst possible arrangement: it was owned by private interests but managed by government. Everywhere else, it is the other way around. Government, as the MRT experience heroically demonstrates, is forever a bad manager.

Those Dalian trains should be the last straw. We have to drastically reconfigure this facility for the sake of the hundreds of thousands of commuters who are doomed to use it.

The Metro Pacific group, in what might seem to be a masochistic decision, made an unsolicited offer to buy out the MRT from both its original owners and the government financial institutions that hold 80 percent economic interest in this messy business. The Finance Secretary indicated openness to that offer.

What the doubtful contracts with a string of maintenance service providers and the Abaya trains prove beyond reasonable doubt is that government is simply incapable of efficiently operating this facility and solving all its problems. Government has simply to concede that fact and take the logical next step: sell this whole thing to a private investor willing to stake money in fixing the system.

There is precedent for this. The LRT-1 is now a better system since it was privatized.

http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/09/16/1739550/unusable

TITAN 22

"For the love of the game"

Stores

• Two Parkade, 30th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
• 2F S Maison, Conrad Hotel Manila, Marina Way, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay
• 2nd Level, Glorietta 5, Glorietta, Ayala Avenue cor. Pasay Road, Ayala Center, Makati
• East Wing Building Shangri-La Mall, EDSA Corner Shaw Blvd, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong

Coming Soon:

• Ayala Malls Vermosa
• Robinsons Place Naga
• SM City Naga
• SM City Bacolod
• SM Seaside City Cebu
• SM Center Ormoc
• Robinsons Place Tacloban
• Robinsons Place Ormoc

Enchong Dee for arena swimwear and TIMEX IRONMAN TRIATHLON watch combo

Anj Dee for arena and speedo

On slow internet, missing SMS, other prepaid woes: telcos should shape up says Poe

Slow internet service, poor connection, dropped calls, exorbitant charges, disappearing load — these were among the complaints of netizens who took to Senator Grace Poe’s social media accounts to seek action against the atrocious services of telecommunications companies in the country.

Using the hashtag #TellPOEonTelco, Poe urged netizens using her Facebook and Twitter accounts to “let your voice be heard” and speak up about the services of the country’s telecommunications providers. (https://www.facebook.com/sengracepoe/) (https://twitter.com/SenGracePOE)

“We deserve good telco service, kaya’t i-share na ang inyong karanasan sa serbisyo ng text, call at internet ninyo,” she called on the public.

The post was instantly viewed and shared by social media users, and generated comments about the inadequate service of the country’s telcos.

“It’s a pity hearing the same old complaints about speed, affordability and coverage in the age of fast technology.” Poe said.

“As a consumer, I can very much relate, and so our united call to the telecommunications companies is to give us our money’s worth and improve your services,” she said.

Despite little or no improvement in their service, telcos have been raising rates using creative marketing strategies in the guise of promotions.

Telcos have slowly removed their unlimited data plan in their mobile subscriptions and shifted to volume pricing and introduced caps on prepaid and postpaid plans. This way, they are able to charge more per customer as data consumption increases and at the same time, able to cut down on heavy users.

“Meron pa silang tinatawag na Anti Bill Shock Guarantee at Shock Proof Data Charging, pero sa huli ay shocking pa rin ang buwanang bill natin,” Poe said.

“The complaints of netizens will not fall on deaf ears. We will gather them and raise them in the appropriate committee hearings, so they will have a voice in the reforms we want instituted in the telco industry,” she added.

Already, there are several bills pending before the Senate and the House of Representatives seeking wide-ranging reforms in the telecommunications industry to improve internet and mobile services in the country and make them at par with international standards.

Even President Rodrigo Duterte had warned that he might push for the opening of the local telecommunications industry to foreign competitors if they do not beef up on their services.

Poe said this reflected the same sentiment of a netizen who made a comment in her Facebook page. According to the Facebook user, “There’s no real competition. Here, it’s comparing a rotten apple with another rotten apple. It’s a duopoly, there’s no real incentive to improve service.

Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, said she is set to call for technical working group meetings to thresh out concerns surrounding prepaid load and other related issues.

Poe vowed to advance the interest of millions of mobile prepaid subscribers in the country as she pressed for longer validity periods for prepaid loads.

The advocacy group democracy.net.ph has proposed to set “dormancy periods” in which a SIM card without any call, text or data transactions for a year will be considered dormant and “dormancy deductions” in which from the time a SIM card is considered dormant, one credit will be deducted per day until the credits are zeroed out and the SIM card can finally be deactivated.

“We have to consider what is best for the highest interest of our consumers,” said Poe, adding that the current rules issued in 2009 which set a minimum validity of three days is quite brief.

“Ang mga mahihirap na kadalasang walang kapasidad na bumili nang mas mahal na load ay napupwersang bumili nang paunti-unting load sa maliit na halaga para lamang ma-maintain na active ang kanilang SIM card,” Poe added.

During the hearing, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said the setting aside of the expiry period is feasible and suggested that this can be done based on a 17-year-old memorandum circular.

Under NTC Memorandum Circular No. 03-07-2009, loads with higher values will have longer expiration or validity periods. Credits worth P10 or lower will be valid for three days from the previous one-day expiration. Loads more than P10 up to P50 can be used for 15 days while credits worth more than P50 up to P100 will remain valid for 30 days. Loads more than P100 to P150 will expire at the end of 45 days while credits of more than P150 to P250 will last for 60 days. More than P250 to P300 will remain valid for 75 days while credits worth more than P300 will last for 120 days.

The committee tackled Senate Bill No. 848 or the proposed Prepaid Load Protection Act filed by Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto that seeks to impose penalties and fines for prohibited acts such as imposition of an expiration period on the validity of unused prepaid call and text cards, forfeiture of load credits stored on an active prepaid phone account via prepaid call and text card or electronic transfer, and refusal to give a refund on any prepaid subscriber whose load credits were forfeited without any valid cause.

A fine ranging from P100,000 to P1 million or imprisonment from two to six years or both shall be imposed on any director, officer, employee or agent of a telecommunications company providing prepaid services who shall be convicted of violating any of the prohibited acts. If the violation was committed by or in the interest of a juridical person duly licensed to engage in business in the Philippines, penalties of P500,000, suspension of license to engage in business for 30 days and immediate revocation of license to engage in business shall be imposed.

http://www.interaksyon.com/on-slow-internet-missing-sms-other-prepaid-woes-telcos-should-shape-up-says-poe/

Unified toll payment for 13 expressways in Luzon by 2018

A total of 13 existing and under construction toll roads in Luzon will be operating on a single payment system by 2018.

This was after the Department of Transportation and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with toll operators – groups under Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, San Miguel Corporation and Ayala Corporation – on Friday, September 15.

“This is what I call the exercise of common sense. Tollways have been there for a long time. We have 13 expressways. Isn't it a common sense to use just one payment system?," Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said in mixed Filipino and English during the MOA signing in Taguig City.

Under the MOA, expressway operators will be required to update their collection systems to allow interoperability and integration.

This means motorists can use their electronic tags from one expressway to another.

When paying in cash, motorists will get a ticket once at entry and pay once at exit. From instance, when going to Baguio from Manila, motorists will get an entry ticket at North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and then pay when they exit at Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX).

"Seamless toll operation is expected to cut travel time and bring about a new level of convenience for motorists," the transportation department said.

For the existing toll roads, transportation assistant secretary for rails Timothy John Batan said the single electronic payment for all 13 expressways will be implemented in March 2018, while unified cash payment is set in September 2018.

These expressways are:

1. NLEX,
2. South Luzon Expressway (SLEX),
3. Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (CAVITEX),
4. Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX),
5. NAIA Expressway,
6. South Metro Manila Skyway System,
7. Skyway Stage 3,
8. Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX),
9. NLEX-SLEX Connector Road,
10. Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) Tollway,
11. TPLEX,
12. Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway, and
13. Subic Freeport Expressway.

"This is a great testimony to the will and dedication of our President. What unites us all is the goal to improve lives of Filipinos, help them come home earlier and spend more time with their families," DPWH Secretary Mark Villar. (READ: Buses, jeepneys in the Philippines to be modernized by 2020)

Private sector commitment

The MOA requires toll operators to install and maintain an electronic transit media reading device in at least two entry and exit toll booths. This device is capable of reading, accepting, and processing any electronic transit media approved by the Toll Regulatory Board.

"We would like to thank the government for making this significant step towards achieving our goal of giving commuters a better travel experience," said Dodjie Lagazo, head of legal and external affairs of AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation.

For cash payment, toll operators are required to install and maintain entry ticket reading device in at least two entry and exit toll booths.

"It took a long time to get this done. What we can assure you is that we will work very hard to make sure this agreement is realized. Motorists can expect better service because of this agreement," said Rodrigo Franco, chief of Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation.

For Manuel Bonoan of San Miguel Holdings Incorporated, the unified toll collection "is the first step" of toll operators working together.

It was in March 2016 when the Metro Pacific group completed the P650-million integration of NLEX and SCTEX, which cut travel time from Balintawak to Subic by up to 40 minutes.

https://www.rappler.com/business/182275-unified-toll-collection-expressways

Will national ID system finally make it as a law?

Last week, in the nth attempt over the last 29 years, proponents of a national identification system managed to get the House of Representatives to approve a bill instituting such a system in the country: 142 voted yes, only seven (the Makabayan bloc) voted no.  In May 2015 the House passed a similar bill, but the Senate didn’t. Will it go along with the House this time?

As approved, House Bill 6221 seeks to establish a “single, unified and streamlined national identification system” to be called Filipino Identification System (FilSys) as “an economic and social tool towards the attainment of a progressive society.” It aims, among others, to “gradually synchronize and consolidate all existing government-initiated ID systems into one integrated ID system.”

Sounds reasonable and looks like a practical measure, yes. But what has made the national ID system so obsessive a project for such a long time and why has it failed to pass muster in the legislature?

Basically the FilSys requires every Filipino, 18 years old or above, to acquire and carry a national ID card with a permanent reference number and to register, under oath, numerous personal data and biometrics information and “such other information as the pertinent authorities may require.” Such data will be placed on the card’s face and embedded in a smart chip on the same card, and entered as well in a registry managed by the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Mind this, however: Access to the data will be granted to personnel of 15 national government agencies and local civil registrar offices with the “appropriate security clearances.”

It was back in 1988 when AFP chief and then defense secretary of the Corazon Aquino government, former President Fidel Ramos, first proposed the adoption of a “national reference card (NRC)” – in the interest of national security. That same year, three almost identical bills seeking to institute the NRC were filed in the House (HBs 4953, 5006, and 5130). In 1990 then Sen. Leticia Ramos-Shahani filed a counterpart bill in the Senate (SB 1685). All the bills called for citizens 15 years old and above to acquire and carry a national ID card.

The bills didn’t move in either chamber of Congress. After Ramos became president in 1992, two similar bills were filed again in the Senate (SBs 477 and 531). Still these remained unacted upon.

Reason: Progressive legislators, civil libertarians, and human rights groups strongly opposed the proposed national ID system. It had been found to have been used by dictatorships in Latin America to violate their people’s human rights. A book, Cry of the People, authored by Penny Lernoux, exposed the fact that US military institutes at Fort Bragg had been pitching the national ID system to military officer-students from America’s client states. This, along with such counterinsurgency measures as “search operations, checkpoints, curfews, and block controls to monitor movements of people and goods.”

The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), founded by Jose W. Diokno, opposed the ID system’s national-security rationale. In three position papers, FLAG warned that the system “will be used to curtail and regulate the freedom of movement of people and citizens and to possibly monitor, harass, embarrass and track down government critics and/or political dissenters.”

But Ramos wouldn’t give up his pet project. In 1995, he disclosed to the media that he had urged some government agencies to study “the possibility of implementing a nationwide identification system.” The agencies were the Department of Finance, National Statistics Office, Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System, Commission on Elections, and Land Transportation Office. He said these agencies were “clustering their findings so that we can eventually evolve a national ID system… for better efficiency.”

On December 12, 1996 Ramos issued Administrative Order 308, adopting a “National Computerized Identification Reference System” with the NSO issuing a Population Reference Number (PRN) card as a “common reference number” for setting up linkages among the government agencies. But on July 23, 1998 the Supreme Court struck down AO 308 as unconstitutional on two grounds: 1) it created a new system that should have been legislated by Congress; and 2) it violated the constitutional right to privacy.

This year’s HB 6221 essentially adopts Ramos’ plans. The FilSys aims to “gradually synchronize and consolidate all existing government-initiated ID systems into one integrated ID system” in order to (among others) “simplify processes in public services, reduce redundancy and delay in government services and transactions… lower down costs… promote greater convenience to the public, facilitate private businesses.”

But, note this: Although HB 6221 doesn’t cite the national-security rationale, its co-author Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was quoted by Philippine STAR as saying that FilSys “will also help in combating terrorism and other peace and order problems” – the Duterte government’s national security concern.

As regards violation of the right to privacy, in the 1998 SC ruling on Ramos’ AO 308, the ponente, then Justice (later Chief Justice) Reynato Puno wrote a pithy dissertation, concurred in by two other succeeding chief justices (Hilario Davide Jr. and Artemio Panganiban).

“The right to privacy,” Puno wrote, is “one of the most threatened rights of man living in a mass society. [It] emanates from various sources – government, journalists, employers, social scientists, etc. [In AO 308] the threat comes from the executive branch of government which… pressures the people to surrender their privacy by giving information about themselves on the pretext that it will facilitate delivery of basic services.

“Given the record-keeping power of the computer, only the indifferent will fail to perceive the danger that AO 308 gives the government the power to compile a devastating dossier against unsuspecting citizens… [T]he right to privacy was not engraved in the Constitution for flattery.”

Dear readers, can you as citizens entrust the officials and personnel of 16 government agencies to safeguard against the misuse, or criminal use, of the personal data that the proposed FilSys requires you to provide?

* * *

Email: satur.ocampo@gmail.com

Ronnie Liang shines in playing Korean actor

Most of us love Koreanovelas and Korean actors. And we are happy to note that in Viva Films’ latest offering “Fangirl Fanboy,” awarded singer-actor Ronnie Liang has passed credibly as a Korean actor in looks, actions and personality. The movie is a very timely film, a take on K-Pop culture.

In the movie, Ronnie plays Mr. Goon, a Korean superstar and CEO of a robot company in Korea who falls in love with his female invention.

“Fangirl Fanboy” launched to full stardom dance sensations Ella Cruz and Julian Trono under the helm of Barry Gonzalez.

Ronnie, who was a “Pinoy Dream Academy” Season 1 finalist, and a Viva talent, is also in the cast of the movie “100 Tula Ni Stella,” starring Bela Padilla and JC Santos.

Though Ronnie plays supporting roles in both “Fangirl Fanboy” and “100 Tula Ni Stella,” they are pivotal in both stories.

• • •

Rita’s books

Talented Rita Avila is set to launch four new books at the 38th Manila International Book Fair at the SMX Convention Center of Mall of Asia.

Today, from 5-7 p.m., Rita will be at the St. Paul’s booth for the launch of “The Invisible Wings Part 3.” Tomorrow, same time, the actress-author will be at the National Bookstore to launch her three other books: “The Tale of Popi Puti and Mimim Makutim,” “The Tale of Ron Ron Meron and Lala Wala” and “The Tale of Bentot Lembot and Ging-ging Astig.”

The books are published by Mindmasters Publishing. Rita is their first author of children’s books. Congratulations, Rita!

• • •

Tidbits: Happy b-day greetings today, Sept. 16, go to Irene Marcos-Araneta, Emeellee Mercado, Tommy Abuel, Emeellee Mercado, Janet Bordon, Romy Posadas, Millie Reyes, Betty Malong, Rica Bagatsing, Belinda Media, Beth Lugtu, Elma Fadri, Arlene Vigilla, Lee Soliman, Janno Gibbs, Lito Legaspi, Rica Bagatsing, Janet Bordon, Rex Paul M. Cruz, Belinda Mejia, Norma Cobarrubias, Beth Lugtu, Gemma Cruz, Elma Fadiri, Millie Reyes, Betty Malong of PCSO, Joel Mejia, Arlene Silan-Vigilla of Atlanta, presidential photographer Gil Nartea, Jenny Reyes, Georgia, Lee Soliman, Imelda C. Baun, MB Research’s Leo Ortega Laparan II and Ms. Milen de Quiros…… Sept. 17: Aiza Seguerra, Francine Prieto, Becky A. De Liano, Doris Leelin, John Burke, Albert Marcelo, Shalon Lara Victoriano, Rommel A. Foronda of San Francisco, CA, Dr. Marcelo Villarosa, Nick Lizette Paman, Cacai Tandingan, Evelyn Malicdem, Matthew Zulnaga, Cecille Novales, Justine Amores Martinez of Cebu, Atty. Ronnie Orebillo and Gracia Y. Martinez of New York…Sept. 18: Joe Taruc, Tessie Velasco, Marites Martinez Lopez, Nana de Rios, Tom Portillo, Cecille Cheng, Dr. Elizabeth Pizarro-Serrano, Marita Serrano, Candy Alison, Catherine Lara Victoriano, Marvin Serrano, Valerie Clarino, Mimi Jorge, Dondon Sermino, Marita Gozum, Joi Samal, Ma. Rouffel Reyes-Valles, Catherine Lara Victoriano, Marvin P. Serrano, Xandra Valenzuela, Steve B. Salonga, Lilet Rico, Lourdes Choa, and Erika Markham…Happy wedding anniversary to Ramon and Fayee Mauricio, and Christopher and Geraldine Silan of New York…