{"id":278876,"date":"2020-12-17T02:26:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T07:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=278876"},"modified":"2020-12-17T02:26:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T07:26:49","slug":"another-fiasco-and-youre-out-duterte-tells-toll-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/17\/another-fiasco-and-youre-out-duterte-tells-toll-board\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Another fiasco, and you\u2019re out’, Duterte tells toll board"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Nichols Toll Plaza, Southbound (Photo by Patrickroque01 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte warned officials of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) that they may face sacking if another \u201cfiasco\u201d such as the traffic mess caused by the implementation of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) toll collection system in expressways in Luzon would happen.<\/p>\n

In a public address late Wednesday night, Duterte called TRB officials \u201cinutile\u201d, and suggested to replace them with a retired military official if they could not improve their regulatory services.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother fiasco,\u00a0alis na kayong lahat at ilagay ko nalang sa isang tao<\/em>\u00a0(and you\u2019re all out and I\u2019ll appoint someone else there). You better call them regularly [Transport Secretary] Art [Tugade]\u00a0at pag hindi<\/em>\u00a0(because if not), just set them aside\u00a0maglagay ka lang ng tao diyan,<\/em>\u00a0expert\u00a0na mag-plano, isang tao lang naman kailangan diyan e. Magkuha ka ng<\/em>\u00a0military (just assign someone there, an expert, just one person is needed. Get someone from the military),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said that before he could even start firing anyone, TRB officials who acted as \u201cdeadwood\u201d were better off stepping down from their posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to weed out incompetence. I do not want you becoming a deadwood. If you cannot perform what is expected of you then the best that you can do for decency\u2019s sake, resign and do not wait to be fired because\u00a0masakit \u2018yan, mapahiya ka<\/em>\u00a0(because being embarrassed is going to hurt),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the traffic mess and confusion could have been avoided if the TRB had fully prepared for the rollout of the cashless toll collection system before it was implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext time you prepare the public.\u00a0Kayong mga<\/em>\u00a0(You) regulators, if there are changes, if there are I said innovations there, let them practice it.\u00a0Ayusin niyo muna. Huwag kayo basta papasok-pasok<\/em>\u00a0(Fix it first. Don\u2019t just suddenly implement it) especially if it involves public interest and public safety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Duterte, their incompetence had caused additional \u201chardships\u201d on the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic interest, protect the public. Do not for Christ\u2019s sakes, do not make it hard for the people to survive. I\u2019ve been telling you just to make Philippines a comfortable place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte urged TRB officials to meet with Tugade on Thursday to discuss measures to fix the RFID mess.<\/p>\n

He said he could not blame toll operators because it was the TRB\u2019s job to have studied and tested the cashless payment system on a trial run before it was carried out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it the fault of the system? Yes, because the system was not tested thoroughly which would translate into something like an incompetence\u00a0at lahat na<\/em>\u00a0(and everything).\u00a0Hindi ko masisi itong may-ari nitong\u2026sila<\/em>\u00a0(I don\u2019t want to blame the owners) Ramon Ang, Ayala\u00a0because meron tayong<\/em>\u00a0(we have a) regulator. That\u2019s the purpose of having a regulatory board. They should not have allowed the system right now to put into use without a trail of one week\u00a0at titignan nila<\/em>\u00a0(and they should see) and anticipate what would be the problem. That is the correct frame of mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Duterte also defended his preference to appoint former military officials in the Cabinet, noting that they always had a \u201csystem\u201d prepared before battle or war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only I said the military sa experience ko who can do that\u2026\u00a0hindi naman lahat, pero<\/em>\u00a0(not all but) the frame of mind that I want\u00a0kasi matagal ako sa gobyerno<\/em>, is the frame of mind of a military man,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian earlier ordered the suspension of the business permit of NLEX Corp. following traffic jams in the city due to the implementation of the toll regulator\u2019s RFID payment system.<\/p>\n

The RFID cashless toll collection should have been a seamless and no contact payment system in the expressways as part of the government’s initiative to also curb the spread of coronavirus disease 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte warned officials of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) that they may face sacking if another \u201cfiasco\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":268370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278879,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278876\/revisions\/278879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}