DoTC has final say on MRT 3

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) is still the ultimate decision-maker on the operations and maintenance package for the EDSA Metro Rail Transit 3, with other members of the economic cluster just waiting on the sidelines for the agency’s recommendation.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, the de facto head of the Aquino administration’s economic team, said he would rather not preempt what the DoTC would announce when it concludes its study on the MRT 3 contract.

“Let’s wait for the outcome of their study and we will work from there,” he said in a statement.

“The contract to operate MRT 3 is among the projects that we want to offer to the public, but the offer has been suspended pending the review of the DoTC,” he added. “It will all depend on the outcome of their review.”

In an interview on the sidelines of the Philippines-Korea Business Forum on Monday, Purisima told reporters that the O&M contract for the MRT 3 was now being prepared for bidding.

The MRT 3 O&M contract and a similar package for the Light Rail Transit Line 2 were supposed to be the first projects to be auctioned off under the government’s public-private partnership program.

A bid invitation had already been published, and interested parties had started preparations for bid submission, which was scheduled last July, with some even forging partnerships with foreign entities that had the technical capability to operate and maintain light rail transit lines.

The group of businessman Manuel Pangilinan had submitted an unsolicited offer to operate the MRT 3 and invest $300 million in upgrading the line’s capacity and improvement of its facilities.