MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Metro 🚋 Manila’s Railway Transit System is no stranger to criticism, scandal and the constant ire of the commuting public, all because of long queues to reach the ticket booths and train platform, delays, technical problems and safety issues.

But the MRT management is puzzled by a phenomenon that appears to have begun on June 12, Independence Day.

There are still long queues and the stations along the entire stretch of EDSA are jampacked.  But each passing train is practically empty, and commuters are not fighting their way to get on board as is normally the case.

It took an investigative team from The Adobo Chronicles to help solve the mystery.  We interviewed hundreds of commuters at various MRT stations.

We finally found the answer MRT officials were looking for:

Starting last June 12, the government started offering free wi-fi service at the train stations along EDSA. Since then, commuters have been availing of the free service to check their social media accounts, send texts to their friends and family, and browse the Internet — all without using up their pre-paid data.

It’s a service that tech savvy Filipinos are quite thankful for, and for all good reason!