MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is set to scrap the contract for the Unified Grand Central Station, which for years had been touted to link three, even four, train lines and serve around 1.2 million commuters daily in Metro Manila. 

The “excessive delays” — around six to seven years so far — are already “unacceptable,” Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon said in a media release on Thursday, March 6. The DOTr chief inspected what was supposed to be a transport hub linking LRT-1, MRT-3, and MRT-7 on Monday, March 3. 

The construction has been halted for a year now, he said. 

Dizon said the DOTr might also run after the consortium of BF Corp. and Foresight Development and Surveying Co. (BFC-FDSC) for penalties and liquidated damages after it failed to honor the agreement with the government. 

Lawyers at the transportation department are now “studying the final termination of the contract so we can move on and finally complete this project,” the secretary said. 

“The delay is unacceptable. This project should by now have been completed at napapakinabangan na ng mga tao (and already benefitting the public),” he added.

Dizon acknowledged that the government has been delayed in payments to the contractor too, and vowed to “balance” the shortcomings of both sides so a solution could be found. 

“The more important concern is to expedite the completion [of the project] because it will make commuting convenient,” he said in Filipino. 

“To expedite the construction, the DOTr is seeking options under the Government Procurement Act or the Public-Private Partnership Code,” the release said. 

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[Vantage Point] New DOTr chief faces massive problems in common station project

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Shortly after Dizon took the helm of the DOTr, Rappler columnist Val Villanueva brought up the “massive problems” he would be facing in relation to the Unified Grand Central Station. 

“The enormous technical and right-of-way challenges in constructing the Common Station, inherited by Jaime Bautista when he took over from [Arthur] Tugade in 2022, will now be passed on to newly installed DOTr Secretary Vince Dizon,” Villanueva said. 

The planned 13,700-square-meter concourse in North Edsa, Quezon City — which Duterte-time DOTr chief Tugade said would be completed by 2022 — “remains a pipe dream,” the column said. – Rappler.com