DOTr intends to pursue MRT-3 buyout before privatization

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) wants to buy out the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3) ahead of privatizing the rail operation and maintenance, an official told the Senate hearing Tuesday.

“Ang direksyon namin diyan is to buy out,” Transportation Undersecretary for Rails Cesar Chavez said during a public hearing by the Senate Committee on Public Services. The hearing focused on what ails the MRT management and maintenance service.

The Aquino administration, by virtue of Executive Order No. 126, also initiated a buyout of the MRT-3 in 2013. The now-defunct Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said at that time it was bent on completing the P53-billion buyout from the MRT Corporation (MRTC), but the plan fell through.

Chavez told the Senate panel the government is paying MRTC an equity rental of P610 million a month.

“Ang pinag-uusapan na lang natin seven or eight years,” he said.

However, Chavez said that privatization is not enough to address the problems besetting the MRT-3.

He said the MRT management should be reorganized and placed under the regulation of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA).

The office of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade is mulling over a proposal for President Rodrigo Duterte to issue an executive order transferring the MRT management to the LRTA.

“Para hindi na nagiging discretion ng general manager or Transportation secretary, para may totoong nagbabantay ng organization. Because, right now, it’s just a project management office of DOTr,” he said.

“Many problems would have been prevented if MRT-3 was run by the LRTA Board,” Chavez added. — VDS, GMA News