Government Buying Out MRT 3: What Benefits the Commuters Get

The MRT is probably the most popular mode of transportation public commuters utilize. More than 500,000 people ride every day and the number may reach 700,000 in the coming years. Augmenting the existing trains with a new fleet of coaches is a very good plan the government to pursue. Upgrading MRT will help diffuse traffic congestion along EDSA and take a big chunk off the riders daily travel woes.

Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Joseph Abaya, announced on national television that Aquino government’s plan on buying out the Metro Manila Rail Transit line 3 (MRT3) could happen in the 3rd quarter of this year. The government wants to take over the running of MRT. A bold move by the government that faced dissenting opinions from critics and the 'masang Pinoy'. But why oh why. Let's now take a closer look at the controversies that this planned buyout is into.

They agreed that the MRTC has the right to manage the MRT 3 and they own the responsibility to choose the contractor that could give them equipment supplies if they need it. With this action, the government now has to answer two 2 arbitration cases against the Philippine government filled by MRTC. The question now is, why in the first place the government did not honor the said agreement. By awarding the expansion project to another provider another set of agreements, critics say 'money will change hands.'

If this Metro Manila Rail Transit line 3 (MRT) government buyout pushes through, will the DOTC capable of managing it? On ABS CBN website, a railway expert said their facilities are poorly maintained and the software technologies used to operate the trains by remote control are already obsolete. If so, putting highly qualified IT engineers and personnel is a must concern for the government to settle.

Another issue here is mismanagement on the part of the government. Records don't tell lies, government controlled companies are labeled as LIABILITY.

What benefits will the commuters get if this happens? Does the additional 48 coaches enough to ease if not totally erased the riding public woes?

My thought: We should not be in this bind if only the government reconsider its position and abide by the 1999 BLT agreement and allowed MRTC to do its job of choosing the M&O contractor for this EDSA rail line. The expert in the field should take the lead.

Government Buying Out MRT 3: Will it Lessen Juan dela Cruz Commuter Train Woes?

Why should I dip my finger in this 'government buying out MRT 3' issue when I haven't been a commuter of this transport system after all. Nevertheless, for the sake of poor Juan dela Cruz; I MUST!

What is this Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT 3) circus all about?

In March last year, President Aquino signed Executive Order No 126 stating that Secretary Joseph Abaya, Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Department of Finance (DOF) should purchase MRT 3 pursuant to a build-lease-transfer (BLT) agreement. But this move encountered some thorny legal issues. For the said plan disregarded the government’s 15-year-old contract with MRT Corp (MRTC), which, by rights, should be running the EDSA rail system.

The original 1999 BLT between DOTC and MRTC gives the private operator the exclusive right to purchase additional coaches, so much so that MRTC made four proposals in the past administration to acquire additional trains—at no cost to taxpayers—starting from 2000, when MRT3 was just completed, up to 2005, when this train system already reached its maximum design capacity.

After President Aquino took over in 2010, the MRTC made an offer in November that year—when now-DILG Roxas was still DOTC secretary—to purchase new trains, again at no cost to the government.

But rather than accept MRTC’s fifth cost-free proposal, the DOTC opted to ditch this plan and instead chose to award a contract to Dalian Locomotive to supply 48 new trains, without seeking prior MRTC consent, in gross violation of their BLT agreement.

Should the DOTC/LRTA pursue this plan to buy 48 trains from Dalian Locomotive, DOTC Secretary Joseph Abaya and Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) administrator Honorito Chaneco, could face a jail term in so doing. Why? Because the government cannot use taxpayers’ money to buy trains for MRT3 pending the implementation of the government's proposal to buy out MRT 3.

But what is this to poor Juan dela Cruz, who happens to knows little about legal matters. Less the hidden agenda, the MRT 3 Buyout Plan seems to cater his taste. But all he cares about right now is for this government to address MRT 3 daily 'commuter woes'. Is that hard to do?