IN September 2009 SM Prime Holdings (SM) and Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA), whereby, in consideration of P200 million, the government agreed to construct the proposed Metro Rail Transit (MRT)-Light Rail Transit (LRT) common station (light rail expansion project), which would link MRT Line 3, LRT Line 1 and, eventually, MRT 7, across the SM City North Edsa Annex building, and to name this common station after the aforesaid mall.
This MOA aimed to provide a common station for easy passenger transfer among these light rail lines.
At present, there exist three connecting light rail stations in the metropolis, namely, the Taft Avenue and Edsa stations in Pasay City, which connect the MRT 3 and LRT 1 lines; the Doroteo Jose and Recto Avenue stations in Manila, which connect the LRT 1 and LRT 2 lines; and the Cubao station in Quezon City, which connects the LRT 2 and MRT 3 lines.
It should be noted that these connecting lines are not really interconnected but housed under different roofs, such that commuters, who need to transfer from one line to another, must walk a considerable distance.
Construction of the common station was supposed to be completed back in May 2010 but disputes over cost, engineering issues and naming rights caused a delay that continues to this day. Even if the physical infrastructure connecting the two rail systems are in place and successfully tested, commuters have to go down at the Roosevelt station of LRT-1 and walk over or take a tricycle or jeepney for the one kilometer distance to the Trinoma terminal of MRT-3.
SM Prime Holdings had earlier given the Light Rail Transit Authority P200 million for “naming rights” over the station. But Trinoma, of Ayala Land, is already enjoying the actual naming rights in the public mind of the MRT terminal. Ayala also raised some issues over how the common station was to be organized.
The MOA would have solved this inconvenience of millions of commuters riding our light rails every single day, by systematically connecting the three lines in one place. If implemented, commuters would only need to walk a short distance within the same station to transfer from one line to another.
However, on May 29, 2013, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), which took over the implementation of the light rail expansion project from LRTA, decided to move the station hundreds of meters away to an area near the adjacent TriNoma Shopping Mall.
According to the DOTC, TriNoma is the more ideal location because a central business district is being developed on a 29-hectare property right beside it and, therefore, a lot of commuters will be in that area. The DOTC further defended the government’s move to transfer the location of the common station by saying that construction of the common station in front of TriNoma would take less time and the government would be able to save P1 billion.
As expected, SM filed a complaint for specific performance with damages against the DOTC and LRTA with the Regional Trial Court in Pasay City. SM also filed a petition for injunction with prayer for temporary restraining order (TRO) and writ of preliminary injunction against these agencies with the Supreme Court, which, in a resolution dated July 30, 2014, issued the TRO prayed for.
In May of this year, the high court also denied LRTA and the DOTC’s motion to lift the said TRO.
Because of the court battle, all the government could do now is to have its fingers crossed in the hope of the legal issue would be resolved soon.
While this project, apparently, would help in reduce traffic congestion and provide our commuters relief from the everyday horror and nightmare of commuting along Edsa, the Duterte administration, by all means, must look deep into the cause of it being stalled, so that the heads of the officials responsible, therefore, can be put on the chopping block.
