The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has managed to give the Philippine government P9 billion in future savings after its private partner, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), agreed to waive the annual grantor payment (AGP) for building the Taguig Integrated Terminal Exchange (ITX) project.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade in a statement said that he had sat down with the top honchos of ALI to ask them to forgo the P277 million annual AGP, which is supposed to be paid on a yearly basis for 35 years under the contract.
“Let’s find ways how we can stop the practice and paradigm of government paying the private sector royalty grounds as they operate terminals,” Tugade said.
He said DOTr has engaged in discussions with ALI since last year, and was able to come up with a win-win solution that will ultimately benefit the Filipino people.
“Two things will be done—the P277 million per year for the next 35 years will no longer be paid, saving the government, this country, no less than P9 billion cashout annually… And two, from the start of its commercial operation, until the end of the concession agreement, ALI will share 2% of their income from the commercial spaces in favor of the government,” Tugade said during the ground-breaking of Taguig ITX, one of the big-ticket infrastructure projects of the administration aimed at further decongesting vehicular traffic on EDSA.
Taguig ITX project, done in partnership with ALI, will be a six-story building on a 5.57- hectare property inside the FTI compound, housing a passenger concourse, a centralized ticketing area, and several business and retail establishments.
The project will also have a provision for bays and parking for some 1,200 public utility buses and vehicles. Upon completion, Taguig ITX is expected to shelter around 4,000 buses and accommodate 160,000 passengers daily. It will also feature a pedestrian walkway connecting to the Philippine National Railways’ FTI station and the proposed Metro Manila subway system.
Taguig ITX will cater to all provincial buses plying the south of Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao destinations.
Construction of the project will start by the second half of 2018 and the facility is expected to start operation by the first half of 2020.
