The cost of living in the country is getting to be unbearable for majority of our Kababayan. We are reeling from the skyrocketing electric and sinking from the overflowing water bills. On top of these, I have just received a legal threat from the lawyers of a telecom company asking me to pay for the monthly fees of the subscription when everytime I was late from paying up, they would cut off the service. From August 2013 until November 2013, I was paying for the subscription with only a half-month use; and by December and January 2014, their service was really kaput.
So then, this morning, I woke up to an interview of a man over the radio about the public retaining ownership of the MRT overground trains; that it is all right for the government to pay for new coaches so that the riding public would have more seats inside trains rather than lining up for hour after hour just to get to ride and reach their destinations.
So that discussion set me to thinking: why not make non-government organizations run these utilities companies? Why did the government sell their operations to other companies instead of managing them ourselves?
Everytime I rode the MRT I knew that the company handling it was making a lot of money. I would see cashiers getting the cash almost everytime I would ride and then, while secured by guards with high-powered arms would go down the stairs. But it seems the company did not bother to modernize the facilities, nor to add coaches so that the ease of transport could be reached.
This brings me now to the mission of NGOs. NGOs exist to serve the public, in principle and in practice. The Constitution recognizes their role so greatly that the framers had included as a provision the recognition of the NGO and the government to cooperate in terms of serving the public.
I think we should start realizing this fully now especially when the problems are piling up with regard to
utilities and transport facilities. We should not have a difficult time doing that. Britain has had anationalized train and bus transport systems for far too long.
According to a website," The London Underground (also known as the Tube or simply the Underground) is a public metro system serving a large part ofGreater London and parts of the counties of Buckinghamshire,Hertfordshire and Essex. The system serves 270 stations and has of track, 55 per cent of which is above ground. The network incorporates the world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863..." It is a highly efficient transport system and works up to midnight.
Even the New York train subway is owned by the City of New York and runs efficiently.
Now why can we not duplicate the? I would suggest that a not-for-profit company be set up to be the operators of our train systems, and from there we could finally breathe freely and have a great day riding the trains thinking that the profits from its operations will redound to the government and will then be used to serve the needs of our people.
What do you think, Folks?
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