MANILA - The government on Tuesday apologized for frequent breakdowns of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3), which have caused pain to tens of thousands of commuters.
The chronic glitches were due to the lack of permanent engineers, overcapacity, and failure of maintenance providers, transportation undersecretary for rail Cesar Chavez told a Senate hearing.
"Humihingi kami ng paumanhin sa Kongreso na kinatawan ng mamamayan at sa sambayanan sapagkat patuloy pa rin ang pagkadiskaril at pagtirik ng tren sa MRT," Chavez said.
(We apologize to Congress, the representatives of the people, to the nation because the breakdowns of the MRT continue.)
Busan Railways Inc., the maintenance provider of the MRT-3, earlier said that MRT glitches were "unavoidable" due to system errors and the "deterioration" of the train and its tracks.