{"id":38009,"date":"2015-01-10T18:14:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T10:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=38009"},"modified":"2015-01-10T18:14:48","modified_gmt":"2015-01-10T10:14:48","slug":"aquino-stands-firm-on-mrt-lrt-fare-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/01\/10\/aquino-stands-firm-on-mrt-lrt-fare-hike\/","title":{"rendered":"Aquino stands firm on MRT, LRT fare hike"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_37859\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37859\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Noy-Aquino.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37859\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Noy-Aquino.jpg\" alt=\"President Benigno S. Aquino III delivers his speech during the Association of the Philippine Physicians in America\u2013Philippine Medical Association (APPA-PMA) Joint Congress 2015 Opening Ceremony at the Rigodon Ballroom of the Manila Hotel in One Rizal Park, Manila City on Thursday (January 08, 2015). With theme: \u201cPartnership in Advancing Healthcare in the Philippines.\u201d (Photo by Robert Vi\u00f1as\/ Malaca\u00f1ang Photo Bureau)\" width=\"960\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Noy-Aquino.jpg 960w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Noy-Aquino-300x190.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37859\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Benigno S. Aquino III (Photo by Robert Vi\u00f1as\/ Malaca\u00f1ang Photo Bureau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MANILA &#8212; President Benigno S. Aquino III on Friday stood firm on the fare adjustment in the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems, saying the decision may not be popular but it is right.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Pero ulitin ko ano iyong desisyon hindi naman popularidad,<\/em>\u201d the President said in media interview following his attendance to the inspection and inauguration of infrastructure projects in Romblon.<\/p>\n<p>This, even as militant, labor and commuter groups have filed petitions before the Supreme Court (SC) seeking to stop the implementation of the MRT and LRT fare increase.<\/p>\n<p>President Aquino said the fare hikes are aimed at reducing the Php12 billion in annual subsidies just for train operations by Php2 billion. The subsidies are sourced from taxes collected all over the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAssume <em>natin na<\/em> all the 14 million daytime residents of Manila, <em>\u2018yung<\/em> NCR (National Capital Region) Metro Manila<em>, ginagamit \u2018yang MRT at LRT<\/em> and that\u2019s a very big assumption. So there are 14 million people being benefited and 86 million helping pay the bill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Chief Executive added that the fare increase, along with the Senate-approved subsidy, will be used for the improvement of services of the MRT and LRT systems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cM<em>ay kailangang magbayad. So talaga namang makatwiran naman \u2018yung \u2018ikaw ang nakikinabang baka naman pwedeng dagdagan mo ang bayad mo.\u2019 Sa increase hindi pa rin mapupuno \u2018yung Php60 (subsidy) ha ng MRT, may subsidy pa ring kailangan,<\/em>\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>President Aquino further defended the adjustment, noting that the light rail systems provide better services than the air-conditioned buses that are currently charging higher fares.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>So ang tanong: \u2018Yung bus ba mas maayos sa traffic kaysa \u2018yung MRT at LRT?\u2019 Siyempre mas maganda \u2018yung serbisyo ng MRT kaysa doon sa air-conditioned bus. So nagbabayad ka ng mas mahal doon sa bus pero mas maganda ang serbisyo supposed to be nitong MRT mas tuluy-tuloy<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA &#8212; President Benigno S. Aquino III on Friday stood firm on the fare adjustment in the Metro Rail Transit &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":37859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95,483],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","category-politics","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38009","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=38009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}