OFFICIALS said the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project is still a go, with the revised budget having hurdled evaluation by the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) Technical Board.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia confirmed Tuesday, August 8, that the project has passed the ICC Technical Board and will be "submitted to ICC Cabinet Committee for approval and confirmation due to change in cost."
The National Economic Development Authority (Neda) issued a statement Friday afternoon, August 8, to clarify the issue.
The cost of the BRT project, set at P10.6 billion as approved by the Neda Board in 2014, has increased to P16.9 billion because of a new road-right-of-way (RROW) acquisition policy that requires the government to offer market values for affected properties.
From the ICC Cabinet Committee, the project will again have to be submitted to the Neda Board for approval.
In the meantime, Cebu City Administrator Nigel Paul Villarete pointed out that the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the implementing agency of the Cebu BRT project, has not put it on hold.
"Neither has Neda ordered it stopped," he added.
While Pernia has said that the proposed LRT-Subway project "seems a superior alternative" to the BRT project, "nothing is definite yet."
"I'd still have to discuss this (LRT-Subway project) with my Neda infrastructure staff, DOTr (Department of Transportation) Secretary (Arthur) Tugade, and other concerned Secretaries. So, nothing definite yet," Pernia said in an email interview.
"And, by the way, the LRT-Subway's FS (feasibility study) hasn't yet been submitted to DOTr or Neda," he added.
In a previous email, Pernia said the LRT-Subway project "would still go through a rigorous analytical process."
"Economic and social -- not political-- considerations are paramount," he added.
Reports about the possibility of the BRT project getting shelved in favor of the proposed LRT-Subway project surfaced when Pernia visited Cebu Friday, August 4, to lead the road show on the Philippine Development Plan.
At a press conference after the road show, Pernia said only MalacaƱang can stop the project.
Pernia, however, later met with Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino and was quoted by Dino's chief of staff Jonji Gonzales as saying that he would push for the LRT project if it is found economically and financially viable.
Dino, who is pushing for the LRT-Subway project, has criticized the BRT project of the Cebu City government as "anti-poor."
Pernia has clarified that it would not be his unilateral decision to put the BRT project on hold.
As of Tuesday, August 8, the project has yet to be endorsed by the ICC Cabinet Committee to the Neda Board.
The ICC Cabinet Committee evaluates the fiscal, monetary and balance of payments implications of major national projects while the Neda Board is the highest social and economic development planning body in the country.
Pernia, as Neda director general, sits as co-chairman of the ICC Cabinet Committee and as vice-chairman of the Neda Board.
Aside from the Neda director general, the ICC Cabinet Committee is also composed of the Finance Secretary as chairman and the Executive Secretary as well as the Secretaries of Budget and Management, Trade and Industry, Agriculture, and Energy as members. Other members are the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor and the BOT Center executive director.
The Cabinet members in the ICC-CC also sit as members of the Neda Board, which is chaired by the President.
Other Neda Board members are the Secretaries of Transportation, Science and Technology, Environment, Labor, Public Works, Interior and Local Government, Health, Foreign Affairs and Agrarian Reform.
"As I said, I just can't decide (on the fate of the BRT project by myself," Pernia stressed.
Despite the increase in project cost, Villarete had pointed out that the BRT project has remained a profitable proposition with an estimated economic internal rate of return (EIRR) of 35 percent, "well above the 10-percent threshold of Neda."
A Value-for-Money study, commissioned by Neda, has also been conducted by Systra, one of the biggest engineering consulting firms globally, Villarete added. (SunStar Philippines)
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