ON obviously-pissed off President hinted at firing members of the Toll Regulatory Board over the faulty RFID system that jammed traffic in Valenzuela City and neighboring areas.
In a public briefing Wednesday night, Duterte said that the TRB should have at least assessed the efficiency of the RFID system before allowing the North Luzon Expressway Corp. to put it in place.
“Mayroon tayong regulator. That’s the purpose of having a regulatory board ‘yung toll. Ang problema ang regulator is another set of incompetent people, they should not have allowed a system right now to put into use without a trial for about 1 week and anticipate what could be the problem,” Duterte said, adding that dismissals at the toll board were possible.
“If you cannot perform what is expected of you, then the best that you can do for decency sake, resign, and do not wait to be fired because masakit iyan, mapahiya ka.”
According to the President, the government has been at the receiving end of the blame over the inconvenience caused by the faulty RFID.
“‘Yung failure n’yo would reflect on us,” he said. “Kami ang nagpu—- ina kasi alam naming may system but it was not tried.”
“If there’s an innovation, you try to do it. Mag-dry run ka ng isang linggo, madaling araw na walang traffic at tignan ninyo . . . And on the day of the implementation, anak ka ng . . . Saan ka nakakita na doon pa ilagay ang sticker while the traffic cueing is almost also exponential, hanggang puwet na, dumating na sa Maynila?” Duterte added.
The Malacañang chief executive further hinted on appointing retired military men to head the TRB. “If I see another glitch there… may memorandum pala kayo, saan ang mga tao?” he said.
“Can I find them? Palitan ko na lahat. ‘Yung may experience na, ‘yung dumaang administrasiyon, I don’t care kung time ni Aquino, Arroyo . . . Hindi ko matanggap ang incompetence nyo, itong Toll Regulatory Board kasi ang participation natin dito kayo.”
Duterte added: “I will get another one to do it for you and for me . . . Magtaka kayo bakit military. Kasi ang military bago mag-atake ‘yan may scout, there’s always a system in every battle.”