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THE
government decided on Tuesday to buy back the moribund
Line 3 running along Edsa of the Metro Rail Transit
Corp. from the Fil-Estate Group within six months and
raise the $865 million needed to underwrite the
purchase.
At the
Senate where Finance Secretary Margarito Teves helped
justify next year’s budget, he said the buyout plan
paved the way for five banks to submit separate
financing package proposals.
He said
that after the buyback, the government would bid out the
line again later. “We need six months to complete the
process, including the part of identifying the banks.”
He was
confident the proposed financing packages would have
been scrutinized and the Fil-Estate Group paid for its
troubles at the 17-km rail line along Edsa “by February
27 next year.”
He would
not disclose the identities of the interested banks,
saying only some were foreign-owned and the others
domestics with foreign partners.
Some of
the proposals have been submitted formally while others
were expressed verbally, according to Teves.
He said
the buyout schemes, while highly preliminary,
demonstrates the government’s resolve to pay off the Fil-Estate
Group, whose original contract bound the government to
provide it an annual 15-percent return on investment.
This has not happened as populist politics prevented the
consortium from extracting fares from the riding public
based on market prices.
A study
has determined that the appropriate fare is P60 per
passenger to enable the consortium to make money, but
the actual fare has been capped at P15.
The plan
requires the Department of Transportation and
Communications to take over rail line operations
temporarily, probably until the line is back under
private management.
“We
haven’t gotten into the details yet. What we are
committing is simply pay off the Fil-Estate Group,”
Teves said. |
