Lalaine Guanzon at Phil National Railwayr and LRT 2 ridng experience

Ateneo School of Government/ The Rockefeller Foundation Loyola Heights, Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City

[email protected]

The Inclusive Mobility Network

March 11, 2014

Lalaine Guanzon – Circle of Friends Foundation & Wheelmobile Rally De Jesus – Lyon Couriers Tina Velasco - MMDA

CHECKING ACCESS CONDITIONS OF THE PNR TRAIN DELUXE AND LRT 2: A RIDING EXPERIENCE

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Inclusive Mobility is all about mobility of the people, for the people, and by the people. And that refers particularly to those who belong to the majority belonging to the bottom of the social pyramid (BoP), the disadvantaged, the vulnerable and the marginalized.

Republic Act No. 344 more known as the Accessibility Law of 1992 is an “act to enhance the mobility of disabled persons by requiring certain buildings, institutions, establishments and public utilities to install facilities and other devices”. This promotes and supports “the rights of disabled persons to participate fully in the social life and the development of societies in which they live and the enjoyment of opportunities available to other citizens, no license or permit for the construction, repair or renovation of public and private buildings for public use, educational institutions, airports, sports and recreation centers and complexes, shopping centers or establishments, public parking spaces, work places, public utilities, shall be granted or issued unless the owner or operator thereof shall install or incorporate in such building, establishment, institution or public utility, such architectural facilities or structural fearures as shall reasonably enhance the mobility of disabled persons such as sidewalks, ramps, railings and the like. If feasible, all such existing buildings, institutions, establishments, or public utilities may be renovated or altered to enable the disabled persons to have access to them.”

The Inclusive Mobility Network, formed in March 2014, is composed of “advocates working with government, the private sector and civil society to attain higher levels of mobility with safety, civility and productivity for all and by all”. Advancing its cause through a rapid assessment of the public transport sector, beginning with rail, is one we are excited about, especially with the recent revived operations of the Philippine National Railways Deluxe train. It was most practical to round up the journey with a ride at the Light Railway Transit 2 (Yellow Line #2) going back too.

Our objective is to affirm the government and private sector’s support to advance the condition of our public service facilities, particularly our mass transport system, and of private sector-owned commercial facilities too, particularly for the PWD sector. Ms. Lalaine Guanzon of Circle of Friends Foundation Inc. (COFFI) and a member of the Inclusive Mobility Executive Council said, “we from the PWD sector deserve the opportunity to become as productive as ordinary citizens can be. Hence, we should be given rightful access to public and commercial facilities like mass transport when go to school, perform our household duties, work for a living or spend recreation time with our families. The last thing we ever want is to be a burden to the society. We are, in so many ways, capable of lifting our selves, or lives, and our own families, but we need enablers to make this happen. It starts with basic access to safe and accessible facilities and services, with the same satisfaction accorded to everybody else.”

So let us take you through a ride, imagining you are with us one fine Tuesday afternoon (till late night actually). In the tradition of social network being “portrait and selfie-driven”, the following narrative is picture-heavy, oftentimes at the pitfall of being trivially story-telling and informal, to set the tone light, but without losing the message hopefully. We hope you will find this informative, enjoyable, and rewarding, as much as the rest of us who are part of this little story.

The Inclusive Mobility Network Team

Why we do what we do.

Total: XXX,XXX.XX



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We met at Circle of Friends Foundation Inc. (COFFI)’s One Corporate Plaza Makati Office. Lalaine’s office nook was filled with craftworks of “Tahanang Walang Hagdan” and “Pangarap”, most of them on order and ready for delivery. Coffi’s impressive Wheelmobile,* took us for a joyride to the PNR station. “Mobility with (first class) Dignity” indeed!



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THE WHEELMOBILE Launched by Circle of Friends Foundation Inc. (COFFI) in 2003, the Wheelmobile offers accessible transport service for people in wheelchairs (paraplegics and quadriplegics). COFFI’s mission is to assist people with disabilities (PWDs) integrate socially to the society by providing them a mobility solution for convenient access to places and events many normally abled people take for granted as actually challenging to many differently abled citizens. In the end, through the Wheelmobile, COFFI enables PWDs to become independent, responsible and professional citizens. Wheelmobile is the first Filipino made transport service for since 2003. Today, its has four (4) Wheelmobiles. “It is a modified fully air-condition van. The cabin chassis of a vehicle is purchased and the body is customized and fabricated to a height of approximately 1.50m, allowing access to even very tall people in wheelchairs.”

Source: COFFI website


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Here’s when we wished our public transport modes get us to always smile this way.


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Our first random stop: the PNR Pasong Tamo Station. We couldn’t find the trip schedules online, because they are just…here after all.

Accessible ramp: check !. Curved handrails: check !. Trip schedules for the regular train are… well, highly hardworking and flipped manually.


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This non-skid ramp flooring is perfect for the wheelchair, according to Lalaine. Kudos to Cityland! More buildings hopefully should adopt this.


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We moved to the Buendia PNR station because the PNR Deluxe stops only at nine (9) selected stations in between the Tutuban and Sta. Rosa, Laguna end stations. We stopped by Mini-Stop for a “mini-stop” and off we went. Going there was a challenge with no walkway to use. We walked along the street along with the cars, trucks. jeepneys and buses crossing the rail line. We thought the challenge was over until we realized there wasn’t any ramp to get to the main PNR station ramp.


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But the main PNR stations do have ramps! The PNR Station Manager and staff were extra nice, polite and accommodating. But here’s something more interesting – the tickets are filled up manually as you would fill up an Official Receipt !.

This is where the regular train beats the deluxe. De-ballpen pa muna kami !. But still, we were excited.


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There was enough time to take a few pictures while waiting for our train. We appreciated the tactile ground surface indicator and its yellow color. Australian standards indicate that the distance to the first flight must be +/- 30cm* measured to signal one’s next step.

*“This means that a person knows that when they identify the TGSI underfoot there will be about 300 mm before the steps begin. If the TGSI are placed right at the beginning of the first step a blind person could miss the first step and fall.”

http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/good-bad-and-ugly-design-and-construction-access-0


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Here you see Byron, Lalaine’s able assistant, cool, calm, collected and…smiling. The rest of us, including our very own train marshal, were tense on the starting line (the tactile ground indicator actually) not knowing which door to take, worried whether the wheelchair fits the entrance door or not, how many minutes the train stops, and if it could actually wait for us. We just wanted to make sure Lalaine is settled and all “locked in safe” before the train started to move. Watch Lalaine and all of us momentarily panic on video !.


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We were finally settled! The PNR Deluxe train gave Lalaine a big, big smile on her face. It’s her first time. And guess what, it was our first time too! I recalled a young lady interviewed on TV about her ride and said she felt like a VIP. I can only agree! This deluxe comes with a reasonable premium (P90 vs. P60 end-to-end). Sounds like a good deal to take once in a while -- if you are tired, if you have a date, if you carry valuables and if you hate frequent stops. Otherwise, it will be an additional P650 a month from your income (or your parent’s income) you should be ready to spare.


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Pensive? Happy?

Yes to both.

Plus the fact that Lalaine was actually contemplating on what her next commuting and mobility adventure will be! The RORO or a plane ride to Cebu next, she said with a hopeful smile.

Lalaine was also wishing she had her circle of friends enjoying this moment with her too. !


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We arrived Sta. Rosa Laguna one hour/forty minutes later, thinking we were to chase the last scheduled train back to Manila with just a five-minute “layover”. Rally and I were on an “all systems go” mode as early as our Binan stop.

But lo and behold – we learned that we were going back to Manila riding the same train!

All we had to do is to buy the tickets for Manila while the train marshals rotate the chairs to 360 degrees. Awesome. “Close na kami” with the nice PNR staff for another two hours, and so…

Tutuban Station, off we go! Lalaine had her shawl on to warm her up over the very cold air-conditioning temperature (brrr).


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The other fun part of commuting is that you could chance upon gaining an acquaintance– and that someone can happen to sit next to you. Mine was a 52 year-old go-getter woman from Carrier Industries. Interestingly, she started talking about her interesting life and I couldn’t share them to you here !. There wasn’t even time for her to ask all about me and thank God for that !. All I’m saying is that commuting can bring home many interesting stories to enrich and inspire you. I sincerely wish her well.

Two hours later, we finally landed at the PNR Tutuban Station – the main station of the Philippine National Railways which also houses the PNR Executive Office. From an impressive and polite staff and a comfortable no-fuss ride, came a pleasant, warm greeting of a surprisingly well-preserved station. Abundant space, well-lit, clean, orderly and…the old train! We felt like kids all over again, taking more pictures.


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Good ol’ M’g Meleno of WheelMobile comes to the momentary rescue to bring us to our next ride – the LRT 2 Line. Destination: the Recto Station. Hmm, how to get in. We were looking for an entrance for Lalaine, but the vendors occupying the streets made it difficult to look for leads. It was almost 10:00 PM and “road” vendors were starting to out-number people, customers and the commuters.


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Finally, we found the ramp! But wait, the entrance gate was closed before close of operations. The guard was alert enough to reopen the gate…and the elevator. Yehey! Hooray for LRT-2 also for the maintaining its tactile ground indicator!


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We were challenged upon learning that to get a 20% discount for PWDs meant having to go to another ticket booth located meters from the main ticketing area. The inconvenience comes with doing this the first time. We wondered though how the line looks like during the rush hours. We are hoping that PWDs must be kept well-informed of this through adequate signages, to cater to first-time commuters who will likely find themselves helpless and vulnerable undergoing this similar experience.


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With the eastbound rail elevator down, we were escorted to the west elevator and enjoyed this short-lived private LRT2 moment all to ourselves! This scene was right before it made its turn to pick up Recto commuters for the eastbound trip. And when the crowd started coming in, we were going back to behaving !.


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She was actually “this close” to performing a pole dance number. See her laugh at the thought. !


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I asked Ms. Lalaine how she rated her two rail rides on a scale of 1 (very poor) to 10(excellent). Nine (9) for the PNR Deluxe and Seven (7) for LRT 2. Not bad at all! We all had a great time, I especially. The IM Network looks forward to having more of this as we push our advocacy for Inclusive Mobility.

Last stop before our Wheelmobile ride: The Araneta-Cubao Station. Exit elevator was down, so we had to take the escalator. Taking a picture of that scene was quite impossible as I had to assist Byron to assure Ms. Lalaine of her safety. One would then ask the question: What if PWDs are normally not assisted?

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Lalaine Guanzon at Phil National Railwayr and LRT 2 ridng experience