3 weeks ago
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Elijah Felice Rosales - The Philippine Star
February 25, 2025 | 12:00am
A bus zoomed past motorists stuck in heavy traffic as it drove along the southbound bus lane of EDSA in Cubao, Quezon City on November 7, 2023.
Miguel De Guzman / The Philippine STAR
No slowdown under Dizon
MANILA, Philippines — The new transport chief plans to turn over more mobility projects to the private sector within his term, signaling his intent to sustain his predecessor’s core program.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is keeping its foot on the gas in seeking public-private partnership (PPP) deals for transit projects under the leadership of Vince Dizon.
The new transport secretary said he wants to emulate the hardline push of his predecessor Jaime Bautista in finding private partners to manage mobility projects such as the Metro Rail Transit 3 and the EDSA busway.
“This (privatization of transport project) is critical because I think this is the way to go. Secretary Bautista can be assured that we will really push this forward because to my mind, and especially to the mind of our President, this is the way to go to make our transport services more efficient,” Dizon said.
He cited the case of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, awarded to the New NAIA Infrastructure Corp. under Bautista. Dizon said NAIA is seeing improvements right now thanks to investments made by NNIC, which is led by San Miguel Corp.
Under NNIC’s control, NAIA is undergoing a P170.6-billion rehabilitation that will expand its passenger capacity to 62 million per annum and prop up its aircraft movement to 48 per hour.
Aside from this, Bautista headed the PPP push for the Laguindingan Airport and Bohol-Panglao International Airport, both issued to the Aboitiz Group in 2024.
Under Dizon’s term, the DOTr aims to award by 2026 the concession to operate and maintain the exclusive bus lane along EDSA.
Dizon will also inherit the ongoing study for the future of the MRT-3. The railway’s concession with the Metro Rail Transit Corp. is scheduled to end this year, and the DOTr is on the hunt for a new operator.
The agency is working with the PPP Center and Asian Development Bank in evaluating the best option for the MRT-3. Currently, there are unsolicited proposals filed with the DOTr from private groups like the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. for the management of the MRT-3.
Dizon said more transport assets may be turned over to private hands under his leadership, but he assured commuters that the DOTr would have their best interest in mind.
“The biggest contribution of Secretary Bautista in such a short span of time is really the massive privatization effort beginning obviously with the NAIA privatization,” Dizon said.
