MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang clarified that the government is not entirely removing the subsidy for the MRT and LRT, only reducing it.
 
“The subsidy will continue. The subsidy will only be diminished, let me be clear with that. It’s also important to know that a continuous subsidy will not really in the long run be beneficial to the government coffers and also to the taxpayers. We could use that subsidy elsewhere for other programs of the government,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said.

“What we are trying to do is to only approximate the MRT fares to the bus fares for now.”
 
Lacierda said that with the increase in fares, an improvement of the services of the MRT and LRT is expected.
 
“I think the Filipino public is fully aware and cognizant of the fact na kapag gumaganda ang serbisyo, nakikita naman nila ang sulit kahit na may pagtaas po [sa] pamasahe ng MRT,” he said.
 
Lacierda said that the proposal to increase the train fares is still in the hearing stage and that the amount of the fare increase is still being studied.