A PARTY-LIST group wants the House of Representatives to inquire into the decision of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to build two rail terminals on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) for the benefit of two malls.
Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna filed House Resolution 470 to determine what prompted Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade to agree to the same “solution” to the problem proposed by his predecessor, former Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya.
Zarate said it was strange why Tugade opted to adopt the Abaya solution for the Lines 1, 3 and 7 rail terminals between SM North Edsa and TriNoma in Quezon City.
He said public interest should be the principal consideration on the issue of the unified terminal, and not the corporate interests of the owners of the two malls.
Resolution 470 said Tugade’s action was “an apparent attempt to appease competing business interests, but is viewed by many as disadvantageous to public convenience and interest.”
“Just when the public thought that the common-station issue shall be resolved in a way that is most beneficial, convenient and efficient to them—through the construction of a grand central terminal—Transportation Secretary Art Tugade merely retained then-DOTC [Department of Transportation and Communications] Secretary Joseph Abaya’s compromise agreement: The clearly inefficient construction of two rail terminals between the two malls at North Edsa,” the resolution added.
The DOTr and the private contractors of the rail lines recently agreed to establish a unified station, composed of two terminals (the Light Rail Transit (LRT)1-Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 transfer station and the MRT 7 transfer station) and two common concourses that will serve as walkways connecting the two terminals.
“It should be remembered that the compromise agreement of constructing two terminals arose from Abaya’s highly anomalous, lackadaisical and patronage-driven decision to scrap the original and commuter-convenient Integrated Rail Terminal. Instead, Abaya transferred the location of the project to one of the malls,” the resolution added.
The Zarate resolution said what compounded the issue was the fact that current Transportation Undersecretary Noel Kintanar, before being appointed to his current position, worked in various positions with the Ayala Corp., owner of one of the malls.
He was also involved in the negotiations to transfer the original location of the common station to TriNoma.
“Many have assailed the transfer, and even the current design, since the original design of the tri-station is more efficient because it is designed as a grand central terminal, which neatly connects the three lines in one place. The original plan also took into consideration the Department of Public Works and Highways’ Edsa/North, West and Mindanao Avenues Interchange,” Resolution 470 added.
Zarate noted that former transportation officials could not provide any justification as to the necessity of the transfer.
“Should the proposed unified station be put into effect, the commuters would have to endure the same experience in the highly inefficient LRT 2-MRT 3 intersection, whereby commuters have to painstakingly walk half-a-kilometer just to transfer from the terminal near Farmer’s Market (MRT 3’s location) to Gateway Mall (LRT 2 terminal location) and vice versa. Then-Transportation Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II, instead of building a central station in Cubao, opted and approved for the construction of two different terminals, instead of one bi-station, to the detriment of commuters,” the resolution added.