SM sues DOTC over train station location

SCREENGRAB from www.smprime.com

Henry Sy’s SM Prime Holdings Inc. is suing the Department of Transportation and Communications after the government agency decided last month to locate a “common station” linking three major railway lines in the Trinoma mall of Ayala Land Inc. instead of SM City North Edsa, allegedly breaching a 2009 agreement.

The common station in Quezon City was meant to link the Light Rail Transit Line 1 and Metro Rail Transit Line 3, and eventually MRT-7 going to Bulacan province, and is now emerging as the latest battleground between rival property giants. It was also uncertain what implications the filing may have on the P65-billion LRT Line 1 to Cavite public private partnership given that the common station location was bundled with the project.

A partnership between Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. was the only group that submitted an offer for the LRT-1 PPP deal last May 28.

SM Prime filed the case Tuesday against the DOTC and Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) at the Pasay City regional trial court as it cited the alleged violation of its legal rights and interests under its Memorandum of Agreement with LRTA dated Sept. 28, 2009. “[SM Prime] now seeks to enjoin the DOTC and LRTA from proceeding with the above plans, and instead, honor its legal obligations under the MOA,” SM Prime said in a statement.

The statement also outlined how the company had repeatedly sought an update from the department but was ignored. The latest letter to the DOTC was sent on May 6, a source with knowledge of the matter said. “Then, suddenly, in complete breach and disregard of the terms of the MOA and without any official notice to SMPHI despite the latter’s repeated formal inquiries, the DOTC unilaterally relocated the Station to Trinoma and made the same a mere component of the recently bid out LRT Line 1 Cavite extension project,” SM Prime said.

It said that in 2009, LRTA agreed to interconnect the LRT1-MRT3-MRT7 common station proposed to be built in front of SM City North Edsa to the pertinent level of the mall. It also secured naming rights to the common station in exchange for a grant of P200 million, the statement showed. Transportation department spokesperson Michael Sagcal said the agency was already reviewing the memorandum of agreement between LRTA and SM. “We have yet to receive a copy of SM’s complaint, but we will be ready to defend our position in court,” Sagcal said in a text message yesterday.

He said the National Economic and Development Authority had already approved the construction of the common station next to the Edsa-North Avenue station of MRT-3, which is beside Trinoma. The Trinoma common station is expected to cost about P1.4 billion but the computation did not include any provision for the MRT7, SM Prime President Hans Sy said in a previous interview.