ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Business devider The Stock Market devider MPIC likely to join MRT-3 solicited bidding

MPIC likely to join MRT-3 solicited bidding

Published Jan 18, 2024 08:10 am

Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan said that the consortium “will probably participate” in the upcoming bidding for the operation and maintenance of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) even as he raised the possibility of asking San Miguel Group for a partnership.

“It depends eventually on the terms of reference that the government will draft, but in principle, because we submitted an unsolicited proposal and the government decided to bid it out,” he said in an interview with reporters at the Smart Tower in Makati City on Thursday, Jan. 18.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) declined the unsolicited bids for the privatization of MRT-3 submitted by MPIC in partnership with Sumitomo Corp., since the agency is opting to conduct a solicited bidding process for the railway.

The DOTr, together with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is drafting the terms of reference for the project.

Invitations for bidding may open by the second half of 2024, according to the agency, just before its build-lease-transfer contract with Metro Rail Transit Corp. expires in 2025.

Aside from MPIC, the unsolicited bid of Ramon Ang's San Miguel Corp. (SMC) was also junked. Given this, Pangilinan remarked that a partnership with SMC for control of MRT-3 is possible.

“I think it might be good for us to reach out to San Miguel to make a joint bid [na lang, di ba?],” he said.

However, no talks have been done between MPIC and SMC on that subject yet, added Pangilinan.                                                                

Back in 2011, MPIC submitted a proposal worth around $500 million in the rehabilitation of the railway. However, this was rejected by the government because of potential fare hikes.

In 2017, MPIC again offered a new P12 billion proposal along with no increase in fares for two years. This was in partnership with Ayala Corp. and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte Ltd. Its offer was granted an original proponent status (OPS) in 2017.

However, the consortium did not push through with the proposal in 2020.

MPIC has also shared plans of buying out the stake of the government and other shareholders of the railway.  

The DOTr extended its maintenance and rehabilitation contracts with Sumitomo in May 2023. Upkeep of the MRT-3 system by Sumitomo will last until 2025.

MRT-3 provided transport services to 129 million passengers in 2023, which is 30 percent higher than the 98.3 million total passengers recorded by the railway in 2022.

MRT-3 traverses 13 stations from North Avenue, Quezon Avenue, GMA Kamuning, Araneta Center Cubao, Santolan-Annapolis, Ortigas, Shaw boulevard, Boni Avenue, Guadalupe, Buendia, Ayala, Magallanes, and Taft Avenue. 
 

ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.