MMDA posts clarification on FB over Edsa street bulbs row
MANILA, Philippines – How many government agencies does it take to replace light bulbs along Edsa? Apparently, quite a few.
Fed up with repeated complaints about the dimly-lit Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has taken to its Facebook account to explain that the streetlights along the more than 23-kilometer thoroughfare, which cuts across six cities, is actually under “several entities.”
The complaints were mostly triggered by an online post that went viral as early 2011 and which continues to make the rounds online, in which Facebook user Ronnel Cuison, complaining about the lack of street lights along Edsa, was seemingly given the runaround by MMDA and the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Cuison posed the question on Facebook to MMDA, which promised to forward the complaint to the DPWH. However, when Cuison posed the same complaint to the DPWH central office Facebook account, he was referred back to the MMDA.
Cuison took screen captures of the replies and put them together in one sneering image to highlight the obvious buck-passing.
On Wednesday, after repeatedly being called to attention anew by netizens about Cuison’s post, MMDA issued a response on its Facebook account: “Edsa streetlights are managed by several entities. Streetlights on Edsa Buendia-Ayala is under the responsibility of DPWH; Edsa Taft-Roxas, MMDA; Edsa Shaw, Mandaluyong LGU; and Edsa Buendia flyover, Makati LGU.”
The MMDA explained that Cuison was referring to the Edsa Buendia-Ayala stretch, which was why they referred him to the DPWH.
“After that, we also told him that MMDA is not the only one managing and maintaining streetlights along Edsa. There are also [local government units] and other concerned agencies,” the MMDA said.
The MMDA said that it had clarified as early as October 2011. The agency warned netizens that should they post the same image on the MMDA Facebook page again, it will be “hidden so as to make way for new complaints.”
