MRT-3 buyout plan up for review

The Department of Transportation is reviewing the previous administration’s plan to execute the buyout of the private sector owner of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 ( MRT- 3) as well as the proposal of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. ( MPIC) to rehabilitate the rail system along EDSA.

Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade told reporters his department is still studying the buyout of the private sector owners of the MRT-3 as well as other issues affecting the railway.

“Whether there will be a buyout or none, we still don’t know. We are looking into a lot of things, including operation, maintenance, people, contract, (and) delays,” he said.

The previous administration was looking to implement the equity value buyout (EVBO) of MRT Corp. (MRTC), the private sector of the MRT-3.

In 2013, former president Benigno Aquino III issued Executive Order 126 which authorized the implementation of the EVBO of the MRTC by the Department of Finance, Department of Transportation and Communications, Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

The buyout was never implemented as the government had to wait for the result of an arbitration case filed by MRTC before a court in Singapore and for an agreement to be made with Landbank and DBP which hold a combined 80 percent economic interest in MRTC.

MRTC filed a case against the government in 2009 for the latter’s failure to pay the equity rental payments for the MRT-3 on time, as agreed upon under the build-lease transfer agreement.

Tugade said the Transport department is also looking into MPIC’s proposal to rehabilitate the MRT-3.

“We can assure you we would take into account what would be beneficial for the majority,” he said.

MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the group has submitted its proposal to the Duterte administration to rehabilitate the train system which has deteriorated over the years.

He said the proposal submitted to the new government had some revisions from the one given to the Aquino administration.

The infrastructure conglomerate first submitted its proposal to the DOTC to rehabilitate the MRT-3 in 2011.