Two titans of the banking industry are locked in a fierce battle, each vying to provide Victory Liner Inc. the ₱5 billion capital expenditures needed to construct the bus company’s intermodal terminal.

Word on the street, or rather, along the banking corridors, is that the Ty family-owned Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) and the Sy family-controlled BDO Universal Bank are slugging it out to be Victory Liner’s chosen creditor.

Both lenders, it turns out, already serve as Victory Liner’s depository banks.

Yes, Virginia, Victory Liner has finally decided to go it alone and construct the intermodal terminal facility on its five-hectare property, located along Rizal Avenue Extension and Samson Road in Caloocan City.

This transit-oriented development (TOD) facility will be a mixed-use, seven-story building. The first four floors will be dedicated to passenger needs, offering centralized ticketing and waiting areas, while the remaining floors will house commercial, office, leisure, recreation, residential, and industrial spaces.

Victory Liner is independently pursuing the construction of this facility, a departure from its original 2024 plan to enter into a joint venture or collaboration with either Megawide-PITX or Light Rail Manila Corp.—a joint venture between Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., Ayala Corp.’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Sumitomo Corp., and the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure’s Macquarie Investments Holdings (Philippines) PTE Ltd.

For the uninitiated, a TOD is an optimum design strategy in urban planning: a compact, mixed-use, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly structure closely integrated with mass transit by clustering jobs, housing, services, and amenities around public transport stations.

The Caloocan property, situated along Rizal Ave. Extension near Monumento Circle, is ideal for a TOD due to its proximity to LRT 1 and, more importantly, its accessibility to a bus terminal serving Manila and other provinces in Northern Luzon. By design, a TOD is typically located inland at a site that offers access to major road, rail, and sometimes even waterway transit routes.

Engaged to draw up the design is the world-renowned Daniel Terrence Yu of Visionary Architecture (Visionarch), which ranks 57th among the World Architecture Top 100 (WA100) practices.

Visionarch’s impressive portfolio includes the One Ayala TOD—a complex featuring a five-story mall with an intermodal transportation hub, trade halls, office towers, and a hotel—as well as Glorietta 3 and 4, and Greenbelt 3 and 4.

DA Abcede and Associates, owned by Dennis Abcede Jr., on the other hand, serves as the construction manager. “It’s all systems go,” declared Victory Liner President and General Manager Marivic del Pilar.

Ms. Marivic confirmed the rumors swirling in the banking industry that Metrobank and BDO are indeed vying to finance the project. The lending facility could be either a Mortgage Trust Indenture or a revolving facility, whichever is preferred and most suitable for the borrower.

The management of Victory Liner, recognized as one of the country’s primary providers of bus transportation servicing strategic locations across Luzon, has until the end of this quarter to decide which bank to choose.

On a tighter schedule, Ms. Marivic has set the groundbreaking for October 1st, a very fitting pre-event for the celebration of Victory Liner's 80th "Oak" anniversary, scheduled for October 10th.

"Groundbreaking is scheduled on October 1st, while construction will commence in January of the coming year. We will operate the terminal in phases," Ms. Marivic shared.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the metropolis’ ongoing construction, the MRT-7 Project Management Office (MRT-7 PMO) unequivocally stated that its facilities near Batasan Station on Commonwealth Avenue are not the cause of the recent flooding in the area.

The MRT-7 PMO issued this clarification amidst renewed statements linking the immense flooding, in part, to the ongoing project. “All MRT-7 structures in the area, including columns and footings, were built outside existing drainage lines and do not obstruct the natural flow of water. These were constructed with full consideration of the drainage layout and in compliance with approved engineering plans.”

In fact, MRT-7 engineers inspected the area and discovered the drainage outlet to be heavily clogged with plastic waste and debris. “This significantly reduced the system’s capacity to carry rainwater, which likely contributed to surface flooding."

'Nuff said.