MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Francis Escudero, chairman of the Senate Justice and Human Rights Committee, asked Saturday operators of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) to submit to the Senate the full audit report of their non-rail revenues including their lease operations from the Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC) and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA).

Escudero said the revenues they get from advertisements and lease operations can be tapped to subsidize the fare increases the government plans to implement.

“If only the government gets its full collectibles from non-rail revenues, pressure to raise fare levels would be unloaded off its shoulder,” Escudero said.

“From the way it looks now, there is a dismal proportion in terms of revenue sharing realized from non-rail revenues between the government and the MRTC,” he also said.

The MRTC, which operates the MRT, has been collecting and receiving income from ads and lease operations through its subsidiary, the MRT Development Corporation (MRTDevCo).

However, the MRTC failed to settle its outstanding debt to the government, which now runs to more than P1 billion.

Earlier, Escudero pushed for a congressional inquiry to determine ownership and full operational control of MRT 3 so that proper steps could be taken on how to deal with fare subsidies, among others.

He acknowledged that while the government needs to look for viable measures to address the huge subsidy, raising MRT/LRT fares should not be the first option.

“We have existing options that are just waiting to be explored. In this case, non-rail revenues should be maximized and utilized for fare subsidies,” Escudero pointed out.

Escudero said based on a study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, the government at present subsidizes the fare of each commuter at R95 per day, or an annual subsidy of P23,850 per rider.

But he said the government should already be implementing what public rails in other countries are doing, which is using non-rail revenues to subsidize fares.

He said a study conducted in 2007 by  the Japan Bank for International Cooperation showed that non-rail revenues of both rail transit lines could still be improved by increasing the advertising rates and the retail tenant leased areas to deflect the fare hikes.

“LRT’s non-rail revenue share is only 2.6 percent of the total earnings compared to neighboring countries, their light rail systems get more than 20 percent of the non-rail revenues,” the senator said.