SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday pushed the Department of Transportation to proceed with the bidding and construction of the common MRT-LRT terminal regardless of the possibility of a temporary restraining order that may be issued by a court.
“Itayo nyo na yang terminal na yan. Keseh*** yung mga TRO diyan, gawin nyo na yan
[Put up that terminal already. What the f*** with the TROs. Do it already],” Alvarez told DOTr officials during a hearing conducted of the House committee on transportation.
“Pera ng gobyerno yan, Project ng gobyerno yan. Bakit iti-TRO? Subukan nilang i-TRO di i-impeach natin. Hindi ako nagbibiro dito [That is government funds. That is a government project. Why the TRO? Let them try and we will impeach them. I am not kidding],” Alvarez said.
Under Republic Act 8975, only the Supreme Court can issue any TRO, preliminary injunction or preliminary mandatory injunction against government infrastructure projects.
Alvarez said the DOTr should not waste time in implementing a project which would benefit many Filipino commuters.
However, Alvarez stressed that the common MRT-LRT terminal project should be constructed as originally envisioned during the 14th Congress, when it was determined that the best location for the common station is in the middle of the Edsa-North Avenue-West Avenue intersection, fronting SM Department store.
But under a recent Memorandum of Agreement signed among the DOTr, other concerned government agencies and with private companies, namely, San Miguel Corp., North Triangle Depot Commercial Corp.-Ayala Corp. Light Rail Manila Corp. and SM Prime Holdings Inc., the common terminal will be built between SM North Edsa and Trinoma in Quezon City.
Alvarez also warned DOTr not to push through with the intended bidding for the development, operations and maintenance of five unbundled airport projects, namely Bacolod-Silay, Davao, Iloilo, Laguindingan, and New Bohol (Panglao) under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.
Earlier, Alvarez said the PPP deals look disadvantageous to the government as winning bidders will operate the airports for 35 years when most of these have already been built using government funds and only need improvements.
In contrast, Alvarez noted that in similar airport projects in the past, when winning bidders had to start from zero, the National Economic and Development Authority determined that 25 years would be enough for recovery of investments with profit.
He directed the DoTr to submit the terms of reference of the bidding for the airport deals, saying it would be reviewed by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.