The Metro Manila Subway Project, or MMSP, the country’s first subway train line, cannot take off at full speed as the Department of Transportation, or DoTr, still struggles to secure the right-of-way, or RoW, of properties and assets needed for the alignment.
During a news briefing after tunnel boring machines were lowered at North Avenue station in Quezon City on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista admitted that issues still hound the RoW acquisition.
“There is one station that is supposed to be built on a property owned by the Department of Education, which was considered as an important cultural property. We will resolve that first because that’s one of the major issues we face right now,” Bautista said.
Bautista added that several homeowners oppose the subway’s alignment, which will pass through their properties.
The DoTr chief also noted that the unresolved RoW issues also affected the awarding of the remaining civil works contract packages for the subway project.
Nonetheless, he said the agency will still target to award the Contract Packages, or CP, 105, 108 and 109 by the third quarter of the year.
CP 1015 involves the underground stations in Kalayaan Avenue and Bonifacio Global City, CP 108 covers Lawton and Senate-DepEd stations, and CP 109 involves the construction of the NAIA Terminal 3 station.
“We need to make sure we get the right-of-way first, it will be a problem for us because when we enter into a contract with a contractor then we still have issues with the right-of-way, we might not be able to start on time, there might be prolongations,” Bautista said.
So far, the DoTr has awarded four contract packages for the project.
These are the CP 101, covering four stations — East Valenzuela, Quirino Highway, Tandang Sora, and North Avenue — and the depot and the Philippine Railway Institute Building, bagged by a joint venture led by EEI Corp.; the CP 102, comprising the stations in Quezon Avenue and East Avenue, bagged by D.M. Consunji Inc.; the CP 103, bagged by Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. Ltd., which involves the stations from Anonas to Camp Aguinaldo; and Megawide Construction Corp. was awarded the CP 104, which covers the Ortigas to Shaw Boulevard segment.
Expropriation as last resort
Undersecretary for Rails Jeremy Regino said expropriation is possible but the government will only take the option as a last resort in resolving contentious RoW issues.
“We have shortened the negotiation process. If there will be no agreement, we will have to file expropriation proceedings but without prejudice to continue with the negotiations,” Regino said.
To date, the subway project’s overall progress has reached 40 percent but as far as construction progress alone, the completion rate is currently at only 11 percent.
The current construction progress involves the building of posts, tunneling works, and station concourses for the first four stations of the subway — East Valenzuela, Quirino Highway, Tandang Sora and North Avenue.
Also counted in the construction progress is the completion of the depot and the Philippine Railway Institute Building.
The entire Metro Manila Subway project involves the construction of a depot and a 33-kilometer railway line consisting of 17 stations that will connect Valenzuela City to Pasay City with a spur line to Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.
Once operational, the subway is seen to reduce travel time from Valenzuela to NAIA from one hour and 30 minutes to just 35 minutes, servicing 519,000 passengers daily.
The project’s total estimated cost is currently at P488.5 billion. Of this amount, P370.7 billion will come from official development assistance, or ODA, loan from JICA, while the Philippine government will cover P117.7 billion.
To date, the government and JICA have signed two tranches of loan agreements for the project.
The first tranche, amounting to ¥104.53 billion or P47.58 billion, was signed in March 2018.
The second tranche, worth ¥253.31 billion or P112.87 billion, was signed in February 2022.