How the flood control mess delayed a crucial LRT-1 rehab

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Notes on the beat

MANILA, Philippines — Living close to a railway was life-changing for educator and freelancer Wilmor Pacay III, as it brought him, literally, minutes away to anywhere he needed to go in Metro Manila.

From his apartment, Pacay hails a tricycle to reach the Tayuman Station of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1), where he rides the train southward, often getting off at EDSA.

From there, Pacay transfers to the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) to board the train to Ayala, where he rides a bus to a school in Bonifacio Global City where he works as a high school teacher.

Pacay is a lifelong commuter, having been an LRT-1 passenger since 2007, when he was still studying at a university on Taft Avenue. Nearly two decades have gone by, but Pacay said only the trains rolled, but the railway system itself has remained stuck.

The age-old LRT-1 problems remain – from stinky restrooms and staircases too steep for senior citizens, to long wait times and occasional cutting trips. All this makes Pacay think the LRT-1 is just one disaster away from falling apart, and he may be partly right.

Pacay is just one of the nearly 324,000 Filipinos who take the LRT-1 daily – to the office, school or elsewhere – and entrust their safety to the railway.

Little do they know that the LRT-1 is urgently in need of a specific rehabilitation to make it withstand a deadly earthquake, given that parts of Metro Manila rest on top of an active fault line.

The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), the regulator of LRT-1, was set to kick off rehabilitation works in 2025, but its efforts were indirectly derailed by the unraveling of ghost flood control projects.

This shows how corruption in government can never be treated as an isolated case, as anomalies in one agency can inflict setbacks on another.

In this case, the setback hit the LRT-1, and the losers are the hundreds of thousands of commuters who rely on it daily.

In the 2024 national budget, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) received P1.5 billion for the structural rehabilitation of the LRT-1. The railway, which opened in 1984, requires major changes to survive what experts call “the Big One,” a 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

However, LRTA administrator Hernando Cabrera said the funds were only released in June 2025, and since budgets can only last two years, the LRTA has only six months left to find a contractor.

Immediately, the LRTA issued an invitation to bid for a P735-million contract to fix the stations in EDSA and Monumento, two of the busiest stops on the LRT-1.

The EDSA Station links the LRT-1 to the MRT-3 through a bridge, while the Monumento Station is close to the EDSA busway’s northernmost stop, so both are important for passenger transfers.

The initial bidding on Nov. 6, 2025 was declared a failure after the lone bidder missed the deadline. The second bidding on Dec. 17, 2025 received a single, fully compliant offer submitted by FWS Construction Development and Supply Inc.

FWS is headed by Oscar Saavedra, brother of Megawide Construction Corp. chairman Edgar Saavedra. Although FWS submitted its bid on time, it was all for naught, as the budget expired two weeks later on Dec. 31, 2025.

“With the expiry of the validity period, we can no longer use the fund, and so we have to remit it to the national treasury,” Cabrera told The STAR.

Cabrera could not help but think about the first bidding, which was declared a failure but gained interest from multiple firms and was way before the December 31 deadline.

The project’s approved budget was P735 million, and it demands P36.75 million for surety bond, P14.7 million for bid security and P75,000 for the bid documents.

The winning bidder must complete the rehabilitation in 1.5 years. It will be tasked to install carbon fiber-reinforced polymer, strengthen LRT-1 viaducts and tracks, place retainers on them and inject epoxy on concrete cracks — all in a span of 18 months.

As the project requires financial and technical capabilities, the LRTA asked bidders to secure the highest license category of AAAA or AAA from the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB). The license proves that a contractor has done a single largest project of P225 million or more, allowing it to vie for contracts over P450 million.

However, during that time, PCAB was missing a handful of board members, including executive director Herbert Matienzo, as they resigned in the midst of flood control inquiries.

At the time, both the House of Representatives and Senate were looking into the alleged misuse of P545 billion in flood control funds from 2022 to 2025.

PCAB was accused by legislators, particularly by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, of letting unqualified contractors win flood control projects by selling them licenses for at least P2 million.

Cabrera said the resignation of several PCAB leaders came at an unfortunate time for the LRTA. There were contractors that signified interest to do the rehabilitation of LRT-1 stations, but had to forgo the initial bidding with their license approval hanging.

“With the resignation, PCAB was unable to issue the necessary licenses of the interested bidders. This resulted in the delay and the failure of the procurement process,” Cabrera said.

“The rebidding process was eventually overtaken by the end of 2025, which triggered the expiry of the validity of the funds,” he added.

In February, the decision came: The rehabilitation will no longer proceed, as “the source of the funds for the project has been withheld or reduced to no fault of the procuring entity.”

Some may ask: The LRT-1 is managed by a private concessionaire, the Light Rail Manila Corp. (LRMC), so shouldn’t it be responsible to pay for the project?

The government, through the LRTA, is already dealing with a P4-billion debt to the LRMC. The obligation covers the many occasions that LRMC was refused a fare hike and some infrastructure spending LRMC covered for the LRTA.

LRMC has operated the LRT-1 since 2015, but it only received a partial payment for its claims last year. The LRTA is committed to settling its remaining debts to LRMC, and passing on the rehabilitation project would be counterproductive.

Cabrera said the LRTA would ask the DOTr to include an allocation for the LRT-1 rehabilitation in the budget proposal for 2027, a move backed by commuter advocates, including Move As One Coalition.

“On all rail lines, including in LRT-1, increased spending on operations and maintenance would be required to avoid service interruptions,” Move As One Coalition co-convenor Robert Siy told The STAR.

Siy underscored the need to improve the safety levels of public transport, as more Filipinos now commute to save cash in the wake of diesel prices hitting P114 per liter.

Based on data from Commuters 4 Change, Metro Manila’s public transport handles 3.88 million individuals daily right now. If the 2.88 million private car owners shift because of swelling fuel prices, it may push the public transport system to the brink.

If a strong earthquake were to shake Metro Manila today, there is no guarantee that the entire LRT-1 would remain intact. No building or structure is earthquake-proof, so for commuters like Pacay, the least they expect is compliance with the highest safety standards.

Ironically, the LRT-1 was so close to preparing for a natural calamity, only for its rehabilitation to be derailed by a man-made catastrophe.