The Perception of Passengers and Employees on LRT Privatization

Abstract

Transportation is one of the universal and uncreated needs of man that has been modified as time, technology, and his necessities changed. Transportation has become such a need because man is a social being. He cannot just stay put in one place, even if that place has all that is necessary for him to live. In the ancient times, transportation was needed to lighten the travel between man's workplace and his home Because of the desire to make every affair in life more comfortable, man has created ways to ease his transportation: from the use of domesticated animals, to the use of wheels, up to the creation of the technology that is present today. In the Philippines, transportation is one of the problems that the government has long been facing. Its inefficiency has been blamed as one of the major causes of the country’s backwardness. The government went over all that it could possibly do to alleviate this condition, but because of the increasing number of motor vehicles, there was only so much that it could do for the comfort of the Filipinos. In the early 1980s, the Marcos administration built a railway that went through the North to the South of Metro Manila, passing through the cities of Kalookan, Manila, and Pasay. This was the Light Railway Transit, which, from then on, gave service to millions of Filipinos who needed to cut their travel time at a low cost. At first, many believed that this is yet another one of the Marcoses’ white elephant constructions, that it would only be for decorative purposes that would indicate the country’s “development”, and would not truly be of service to the masses But the number of passengers that the LRT has garnered through years of operation says otherwise, and it indeed has become a need to quite a number of people The LRT is one of the government-owned companies that could not possibly go bankrupt, at least for now. It earns millions every day, from the massive number of passengers that it caters to. A previous problem with the tokens illegally being smuggled out and being sold by sidewalk vendors may have something to do with the revenues that should truly be for the LRT. But this has been solved in 2001 when the token system was exchanged for the magnetic card, which could not be sold and activated without the proper computer software. The issue of privatization of the LRT has been dwelled upon for a long time. Those who are going for its privatization say that it would be for the betterment of the services that the management would provide for its riders. Those who are against it, however, say that it does not need to be privatized because it would only lead to the deregulation of fare prices. However, the government, in lieu of this issue on LRT privatization, the government forgets to ask those who would be most affected if its privatization were to be pushed through its passengers and employees.