BRT proponent asks SC to compel gov’t to junk rail-based transport projects
Light Rail Transit (LRT) line 1
MANILA, Philippines—A retired investment banker on Tuesday petitioned the Supreme Court to stop the government from pushing through with the P64.9 billion Baclaran-Cavite Light Rail Transit 1 (LRT1) extension and the more than P60-billion Manila Railway Transit 7 (MRT7) projects.
In a 30-page petition for mandamus, Francis Yuseco Jr., president of management company Philtrak Inc., said that instead of pursuing the rail-based mass transit system, the high court should compel the executive branch to build a bus rapid transit (BRT), which is much cheaper and faster.
Yuseco hold patents on mass transport system including the Philippine Track Mass Transit System awarded by the government on July 12, 1989; and the Track Rapid Transport System awarded by the government on Aug. 8, 2011.
Yuseco noted that a kilometer of a BRT can be constructed at 90 percent less than the cost of an LRT or MRT and can be finished in less than a year.
He said Philtrak’s structural and civil engineers can attest that the proposed partially at-grade and partially elevated 11.25-kilometer LRT 1 extension project can be built at only 10 percent of its total cost with a fully elevated BRT system for the same distance in less than one year.
Yuseco said his proposed BRT, dubbed as Philtrak Rapid Transit (PRT), is a government-subsidy-free project that could be linked to the existing LRT line, adding that it could also use the alignment planned for the Cavite extension.
He asked the high court to favor his unsolicited proposal for the adoption of PRT initially at the Bay Area Entertainment City and Commonwealth Avenue and Circumferential 5 corridor.
He said his proposal should be put up by the government under the”Swiss challenge.”
Yuseco said adoption of BRT or PRT would free Filipino taxpayers from subsidizing any and all forms of mass transit system.
“Rapid bus transits will truly result in the complete freedom of the Filipino taxpayers from billions of endless and perpetual subsidies they otherwise have to sacrifice if exorbitantly expensive imported mass transit systems are continuously built,” the petition stated
Currently, Yuseco said there are 36 major cities in various parts of the world that are operating rapid buses without any form of government subsidies.
Yuseco served as the executive director of the Philippine Investments Systems Organization (PISO), an accredited domestic conduit for multilateral and bilateral lending institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Named respondents in the petition are Secretary Emilio Abaya of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, National Economic Development Authority chief Arsenio Balisacan, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, DOTC Undersecretaries Rene Limcaoco, Jose Lotilla and Catherine Gonzales, DOTC Assistant Secretary Jaime Feliciano, and Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines Executive Director Ma. Cosette Canilao.
