A lot of commuters felt good about former Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson returning to the private sector as head of the LRT-1 concessionaire, Light Rail Manila Corp.
While many people are skeptical of the private sector running public services, imagining obscene profits being made at their expense, Singson said recently that this was definitely not the case with the LRT-1. After the rehabilitation costs and the actual railway extension to Cavite province, estimated to cost more than P30 billion, Singson said they won’t be making too much money.
The Cavite extension, he said, would almost double current ridership to about 800,000 people a day when it opens in 2021. Even then, he expects the LRT-1 to post P3 billion in annual profits. This then needs to be split among Light Rail Manila owners, themselves big conglomerates Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
For most people, P3 billion might sound like a fortune—because it is. For those conglomerates, which control the country’s biggest telco, banking, energy, toll road, real estate and water interests, it’s closer to an oversized drop in the bucket. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS
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