The MRT rehabilitation is now closing as President Rodrigo R. Duterte's term is coming to an end. I was wondering was the case of the MRT wreck much like Boeing? I decided to watch the documentary Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. The very case may be comparable to the MRT under the watch of Joseph Emilio Abaya este Pabaya.
Remembering Pabaya
I decided to get some old news from Rappler in order to troll the Pinklawans. One of them was in regards to Pabaya's reaction on the derailed MRT train.
On the day of the train system's worst accident to date, Abaya defended the train system’s maintenance: "There's no lapse in our maintenance. The little that I know so far, there might be a lapse in the procedure, rather than a failure parts or failure in main, but again, I'm not closing the fact but we have to investigate and share to the public the real cause."
The following day, Abaya admitted the line is overdue for an upgrade but insisted the line was still safe. “My conscience is clear; government is acting and doing the right thing. At the end of the day, to be safe, we won't run it if it's not safe.” (READ: Abaya admits MRT-3 upgrade overdue)
On August 19, Tuesday, Abaya said the two train drivers involved in the incident failed to follow safety procedures in the train’s “coupling” procedure. The Transportation Department also found out there was “poor coordination” between the drivers and the managers of the Magallanes and Taft stations. The train drivers and personnel involved face administrative charges.
It really felt like how the people at Boeing reacted. Boeing went to a different workplace culture after it was purchased. I watched the documentary and facedesked at how the new owners of Boeing IGNORED technical maintenance for fast profits. However, money that's easy come is easy go, right? Boeing decided to blame the pilots instead of looking at the system. The pilots did complain that something was wrong. Boeing's staff ignored it. The company kept up with blaming the pilots until it was uncovered something was WRONG with the planes themselves. Both the train and the drivers could be the problem. Sometimes, it's the train. Sometimes, it's the driver. However, changing vehicles will reveal bad drivers and good drivers will point out what's wrong with the vehicles.
It would be very contradictory that he said that MRT upgrade was needed. However, he said his "conscience is clear" regarding the upgrade. If there's an OVERDUE upgrade then why wasn't it done? If that's so then there's a LAPSE in maintenance. Pabaya was shooting himself at the foot when he decided to simply say it was just the drivers' fault when it could be a combination of factors. There's the possibility that the safety procedures couldn't be followed because of the long-overdue upgrade!
The MRT Philippines website has this to say regarding Secretary Pabaya:
But you know it’s not that much of a challenge for the top transportation official to ride the MRT when he has an aide hold an umbrella over his head as he boards the train during off-peak hours. Small wonder, then, that Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya found his train-riding experience “pleasant.”
For the half-million or so Filipinos who take the MRT daily, the commute is anything but. And if Abaya really wanted to find out what it’s like, he should fall in line like everyone else (instead of having his bodyguard do it for him) during rush hour, when the queueing takes longer than the actual ride; if he still finds that pleasant, then perhaps he should do it every day.
After Abaya (who has been rechristened “Secretary Pabaya” in the social media) did his Imeldific thing on the MRT, Senator Grace Poe and Malacañang spokesman Abigail Valte followed suit. Both of these women braved the rush hour queues that Abaya, the former soldier, could not; neither of them had aides holding umbrellas over their heads, nor did they describe their journeys as pleasant.
Of course, the whole point of challenging officials to take the MRT, as advocated by former elections commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, is to make them aware of how difficult the plight of the ordinary commuter is. If more government officials forsook their air-conditioned, taxpayer-paid SUVs and took the trains, perhaps they’d make sure these were reliable, safe and fast.
But Abaya only apparently understands the publicity value of riding the MRT, like it was the public transport equivalent of that ice bucket challenge that everyone seems to be doing online. And so Abaya misses the point entirely when he adjudges the ride he took as pleasant, having made sure that the conditions would be just so—including making provisions for some inconvenient rain—when he did.
Abaya only exposed himself as a publicity hound and a liar who wants to convince us that taking the MRT isn’t as bad as people say it is. Someone should tie Abaya to the front of the next train that blasts through the concrete barrier at the end of the line.
How the parliamentary system could've avoided it
One can always hound on Pabaya himself. However, the bigger problem is the political system in itself. The presidential system is very pabaya in itself. Pabaya is but a result of the pabaya presidential system. However, this would've had a lesser chance of happening under a parliamentary system.
I'm amazed at all the blah blah blahs against shifting to parliamentary system. Some may say it wouldn't work because of the Marcos "parliament" - something the late Lee Kuan Yew and the late Ninoy Aquino both debunked. The Marcos "parliament" was (I love to say it) was like the Imperial Senate in Star Wars - nothing more than a prop! Cesar Virata was described as a "sitting duck" which meant he was no prime minister. The late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. was ousted as a PRESIDENT and NOT AS A PRIME MINISTER. So there, no are we ready to move forward?
It's because the parliamentary system has one thing the presidential system doesn't have - WEEKLY QUESTIONING. Let's say that the late Noynoy Aquino was referred to as Prime Minister Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino. The Liberal Party government will have Deputy Prime Minister Manuel Araneta Roxas II and a set of ministers. Meanwhile, there may be the Opposition which could be led by LAKAS Opposition Leader Jose De Venecia. Let's say that Joseph Estrada was ousted as prime minister, Edgardo Angara was able to take over and run the LAMMP Government better, and then the next elections will have Noynoy win because the Liberal Party became the government. De Venecia gets another round as the Opposition Leader after the Parliament deems Estrada too incompetent to be the prime minister. The majority and minority have their own set of appointees to mirror each other. Obviously, only Liberal Party stalwarts will be on the Liberal Party government. Only LAKAS stalwarts will be on the LAKAS government.
It would be different if Pabaya himself had to answer EVERY WEEK regarding his job as the Minister of Transportations and Communications. Pabaya would have to stand before the Parliament to give account to the De Venecia-led opposition. If Pabaya wants to survive then he has to check out the MRT himself and bring in reports EVERY WEEK. Pabaya would be required to give an account of his plans to improve the MRT. Meanwhile, any shadow minister of transportation and communications would need to give alternatives. Pabaya would need to uphold the confidence of the Parliament. There would be a full investigation if ever accidents happen. Pabaya will have to cite evidence that it's the fault of the drivers by presenting both sides of the coin. The Opposition would have its job to verify the statement if what Pabaya said is true.
Sadly, the Liberal Party's opposition to constitutional reform has been their undoing. The presidential system made them lose their voice after Duterte became president. The Liberal Party could've been the opposition right now (maybe led by Mar Roxas and Leni Loud Robredo) if we were in a parliamentary with their own set of appointees. Michael Aguinaldo would be a better fit as the shadow auditor instead of the actual auditor due to his status as a Liberal Party member. Instead, the presidential system is a bigger cause as to why the problems have piled up even before the Aquino Administration began. It also why certain problems in the Aquino Administration piled up too.
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