A Days Wait

PACHECO, RUFFA MAE E.

BSBAMG1A

Rail ticket project

I. Single ticketing project for MRT and LRT

II. Completion of DOTC’s requirements

III. P279 million payments and P800 million transaction fee

DISCUSSION:

The DOTC or Department of Transportation and Communications said that they won’t stop the P1.72-billion Automatic Fair Collection System Project (AFCS) from proceeding, despite of protest from the losing bidder. And for everybody’s information MRT is different from LRT. The MRT which stands for Metro Rail Transit, services commuters of EDSA, while LRT or the Light Rail Transit, services commuters of Taft-Rizal Avenue and Ramon Magsaysay Blvd- Aurora Blvd. And the MRT is owned and operated by Fil-Estate, a private company while the two LRT were owned by the Philippine Government and managed by the DOTC. But in behalf of this differences both the MRT and LRT are comparable to a subway system in the United States.

According to the reports and interviews Michael Arthur Sagcal the DOTC spokesperson did say that, He also said that agency set to issue a Notice of Award to the tandem of Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments corp. (MIPC) within the next 20 days. They won’t entertain anymore any complaint. It up to the Bids and Awards Committee ( BAC). And it was also stated there that the BAC is not inclined to derail the process especially now that that they are already awarded the project.

Contrary to the claims made by SM group, he pointed out that the bid submitted by the AF Consortium completes all the requirements of the DOTC. Sagcal added that unconditional simply means that the bidder accepts all the terms of the bid which AF did. And he mentioned that the payment for the project includes availability payments and the transaction fee. The group had offered P279 million and P800 million transaction fee. The AF consortium opted to compute their bid base on the 750 million passengers. The SM chose different structure because they don’t...