DOTr urged to rush MRT-LRT station

SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez has called on the Department of Transportation to speed up the building of the Light Railway Transit (LRT)–Metro Railway Transit (MRT) common station and to consider public welfare as its priority for the project.

Alvarez issued the call as the House committee on transportation, chaired by Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, resumed Wednesday afternoon its hearing on the common station project that will link LRT 1, MRT 3 and the forthcoming MRT 7.

“We have wasted so much time to implement this project. Even during the 14th Congress, it was established where the common station should be, in the interest of the public,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez said it was high time for the government to identify where the common station should be since funding for the project would come from the government, using the budget allocated by Congress.

“Let those who want to question the government do it in the proper venue,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez also asked DOTr officials “to start building, with or without a TRO [temporary restraining order], the common station that is in the interest of the riding public.”

He reminded the DOTr officials that Congress could always exercise its oversight function.

The Jan. 18, 2017 memorandum of agreement entered into for the common station was, according to several members of the committee, mired with anomalous and questionable provisions which could put the government at the losing end.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate earlier filed House Resolution 470, directing the committee to probe the DOTr’s decision to enter into a MOA and adopt former Transportation and Communications Secretary Emilio Abaya’s proposed compromise station between The Annex at SM City North EDSA and Trinoma Mall.

Zarate said the decision was an apparent attempt to appease competing business interests.

LRT Line 2 Extension won't be completed till 2019

It looks like it will take until 2019 before commuters can use the LRT Line 2 extension instead of later this year as originally targeted.

The LRT Line 2 extension appears to be nearly finished, with all the pillars and viaduct free of barriers and safety nets, but the project is far from complete as it still lacks rails. Stations have yet to be constructed, and electromechanical works will be re-auctioned and awarded only by July.

Based on Transportation department estimates, the LRT Line 2 extension will become operational by January 2019, well past the original target of the third quarter of 2017.

The reason for the delay: contracts that were split, allegedly to favor small-scale bidders.

According to transportation expert Rene Santiago, "the reason for the chop-chop is not economies of scale. It is to give their favorite a reason or chance to get money and make a contract."

Santiago added, "if you chop it into smaller pieces, even your janitor can do it, can get a piece of the pie."

Having only one contract for the LRT Line 2 extension, which is only 4 kilometers long, could have led to completion two years following groundbreaking in 2015.

The Transportation department, however, said it is only following what is stipulated in the law.

Here's how Cesar Chavez, OIC-Undersecretary for rails at DOTr, explained it: Per "Republic Act 9184, for a contractor to qualify, kailangan yung kanyang capability is 50% meron syang, yung single biggest contract nya is 50% of the total project cost. Therefore, kung 10 billion pesos worth yung project, ang contractor merong single biggest contract worth 5 billion pesos. Bihira ang ganyan."

The upside to the delay is the relatively manageable traffic for those using Marcos Highway, a situation more than likely to change once construction of the LRT 2 extension's two stations start.