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A2 I NEWS TUESDAY January 21, 2020

Probe of LRT contract

pushed in Congress
BY DIVINA NOVA JOY DELA CRUZ terms that may put the financial "They have a lot of money.
AND LISBET K. ESMAEL burden of the agreement to the Getting most of the confiact, lin-
govemment." cluding thel LRT. I will look into

A party-list congressman filed on On Monday LRMC expressed

A tvtonday a resolution calling for an
L linquiry into what he described as
a "lopsided concession agreement" be-
tween the government and the Light Rail
Manila Corp. (LRMC).
ACI-CIS paity-list Rep. Eric
Go Yap filed the resolution after
President Rodrigo Duterte said he
would review the Manila Light Rail
Transit (LRT) contract, where rhe
Ayala and Pangilinan conglomer-
ates are involved.
Dutene said he wanted to frnd
out how the two companies gained
big-rick€t contracts with the gov-
emment. In 2015, the consortium
of Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific
took over the operation of LRT
Line 1, the first elevated com-
muter tain in Metro Manila that
stretches ftom the Mufloz station
in Quezon City to Baclaran in
Pasay City.
The LRMC also won the award
tobriild, operate and maintain the
P64.9-billion LRT Line 1 extension
project to Cavite.
"Mr, Fernando Zobel de Ayala
and Mr. Manuel V Pangilinan,
who were found to have key
roles in LRMC operations,also
chair the water concessionaires
Manila Water [Co. Inc.] and
-
Maynilad [Water Services Inc. ],
respectively whose agreements
are
-
currently looked into in Con-
gress for their alleged onerous
contracts with the govemment, "
House Resolution 647 read.
In his resolution, Yap said the
LRMC reported a gross revenue
that appeared to be "bigger' than
the proied concession fee in lust
four years.
The agreement will cover a 32-
year period. Yap said this"'may
indicate an uniust and inequitable
willingness to work with the
government in scrutinizing its
contract.
In a statement. the LRMC said it
\/{ou)d "&,jp.rut.' if the Dutene
administration decides to launch
an investigation into its conces-
sion aSreement.
"LRMC remains committ€d to
providing a safe, reliable, efficient
and comfortable tmnsportation
seryice to the commuting public
within its area ofoperations,' the
LRT operator said.-
The LRMC is a consortium
made up of the Metro Pacific
Investments Corpls Metro Pacific
Light Rail Cory., Ayala Corpls AC
Inftastructure Holdings Corp. ind
the Philippine tnvestmentAlliance
for lnfrastructure's Macquarie
lnfrastructure Holdings (Philip-
pines) PTE Ltd,
The statement came afier Presi-
dent Duterte on Friday said he
would lookinto the govemment's
contract witi tie concessionaire,
in which the Ayala Group and
Pangilinan were members.
it. They have one with the LRT,"
Dutert€ said.
The President has been target-
ing Manila Wjter, a subsidiary of
Ayala Corp., and Maynilad, where
Pangilinan's Metro Pacific Invest-
ments Corp. is the controlling
stakeholder
LRT 1. has 20 stations and
seryices about 500,000 com-
muters daily.
LRMC also clinched the deal
to build the 11.7-kilometer
Cavite extension, where it could
increase passenger traffic to
800,000 per day.
The new line could cut travel
time between Baclaran and Ba-
coor, Cavite from one to two
hours to only 25 minutes, once
operational in 2022.
The Cavite extension project
will have eight stations conneding
Baclaran station to Niog, Cavite
and is scheduled for completion
in 202L
The stations will be at Aseala,
Manila Intenational Airpon, Asia
World, Ninoy Aquino, Dr Santos,
Las Piias, Zapote and Niog.

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