Presidentiables Mar Roxas and Sen. Grace Poe played blame game regarding the controversial MRT and Traffic problems in Metro Manila during a forum held on Wednesday night attended by three American business schools. Aside from the two presidentiables, present during the forum were graduates from Wharton Harvard Club of the Philippines, the Kellog School of Management Alumnae Association of the Philippines and the Wharton-Penn Alumni Association.
The presidential aspirants forum featuring former DILG Secretary and Liberal Party’s standard bearer Mar Roxas and Sen. Grace Poe was held at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City.
Metro Manila’s traffic problems and MRT woes took center stage during the event when presidential aspirants Sen. Poe and Mar Roxas were given the opportunity to response on the pressing issues.
According to Sen. Grace Poe, people deserve better and Mar Roxas could have done better during his stay as head of the DOTC and stated the following: “People deserve better. It’s a matter of vision, planning, execution and leadership that could have spelled the difference,” Poe said
Mar Roxas on his part later made a remarks during the forum that he was “confident [he] did all [he] could” given the situation at hand during his stint as DOTC chief from June 2011 to September 2012.
The Wharton School of Economics graduate said the “original sin” behind the MRT problem was the build-lease-transfer contract between the Ramos administration and a private consortium led by Robert John Sobrepeña’s group, that Roxas described as “anomalous” because of its guaranteed 15-percent annual return and the provision that only the private builder and not the government could buy the trains.
