CA backs Makati court's refusal to stop MRT expansion project

The Court of Appeals has affirmed a Makati court’s order last February denying a plea to stop the Department of Transportation and Communications’ (DOTC) P3.8-billion MRT-3 Capacity Expansion project that seeks to add 48 brand new trains to MRT Line 3 (MRT-3).

In a 16-page decision penned by Associate Justice Ramon Bato Jr, the appeals court’s Twelfth Division denied the petition for review filed by the Metro Rail Transit Corp (MRTC) and the MRT Holdings II, Inc (MRTH II) challenging a February 20, 2014 ruling by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 66 that denied for lack of legal basis the firm’s plea for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction against the expansion project.

The CA said bare allegation or invocation that MRTC suffered grave injustice and irreparable injury due to the expansion project will not automatically result in the issuance of injunctive relief.

“Petitioners should discharge the burden to show a clear and compelling breach of a constitutional provision,” read the ruling.

“Violations of constitutional provisions are easily alleged, but trial courts should scrutinize diligently and deliberately the evidence showing the existence of facts that should support the conclusion that a constitutional provision is clearly and convincingly breached,” it added.

The CA said no injunctive writ should be issued “in case of doubt.”

The court said a scrutiny of the judicial affidavits of former and current officials of MRTC were insufficient to prove grave injustice and irreparable injury on the company since their statements were “merely self-serving and uncorroborated by independent and disinterested witnesses.”

The CA clarified that its decision was limited to the issue of the propriety of the denial of the petition for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction as an interim relief.

The DOTC had insisted that the MRT-3 capacity expansion project is a national government project duly approved by the National Economic and Development Authority, and falls under the coverage of Republic Act 8975.

Under the said law, courts, except for the Supreme Court, are prohibited from restraining or enjoining national government projects.

The MRTC Limited entered into a build-lease-transfer (BLT) agreement with the DOTC in 1999 to construct and maintain a light rail transit system for EDSA, eventually known as MRT-3.

In May 2004, the MRTC informed the DOTC of the need to procure additional light rail vehicles in light of the growing number of MRT-3 passengers.

On Dec. 19, 2007, the DOTC wrote to MRTC about the possible procurement of LRVS, warning the company however that there was no sovereign guarantee that MRTC would be chosen to supply the additional LRVs.

On April 21, 2008, the DOTC wrote MRTC another letter stating the latter’s failure to reply was construed as a waiver of its right of first refusal.

In November 2013, the MRTC said it learned in the news that the DOTC had already certified that Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co. CNR Group was fit to proceed with the MRT-3 capacity expansion project. The MRTC claimed it had been deprive of its right of first refusal. In January 2014, the DOTC issued the Notice of Award to Dalian Locomotive, involving a P3.8-billion contract for 48 new LRVs.

The MRT expansion project aims to alleviate the congestion in MRT3, as it targets to use four-coach trains that would arrive every 2.5 minutes during peak hours from current system of three-coach trains every 3 minutes during peak hours.

The MRT3 is currently servicing around 600,000 passengers daily, almost double its designated capacity of 350,000. —ALG, GMA News