THE Department of Transportation (DoTr) said it will seek further clarification from the Department of Justice (DoJ) of its legal opinion on right-of-way (RoW) acquisition rules for big-ticket government projects.
“We are actively pursuing various approaches regarding the DoJ legal opinion. As we believe the opinion was issued based on incomplete facts and assumptions, we submitted to the DoJ a request for clarification, where we raised additional facts and new legal arguments,” Transportation Secretary Vivencio B. Dizon said.
Workarounds to the legal opinion will be necessary to ensure that big-ticket railway projects are not delayed beyond 2028, Mr. Dizon said.
The DoJ’s legal opinion held that compensation rules set by development partners for persons displaced by foreign-funded projects apply only if the loan agreement was signed prior to the effectivity of the Right-of-Way Act (Republic Act No. 10752).
“We are also seeking amendments to the current Right-of-Way Act in order to resolve perceived conflicts between the law and our contractual obligations to partners. We are hopeful that an amended law will be passed by the end of the current (19th) Congress, or at least early in the 20th Congress,” he said.
The opinion was issued to clarify the compensation rules governing projects entered into by the DoTr and development partners like the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Pending clarification from the DoJ, the DoTr will be proceeding with full payments, Mr. Dizon said.
“Not only because the DoJ opinion stated that international agreements, such as the loan agreements, enjoy the presumption of validity unless they have undergone the process of judicial review but also, and perhaps more importantly, as a matter of fairness to the people who are affected by the right-of-way acquisition activities for our flagship projects,” he said.
The DoJ said the Right-of-Way Act has its own process for acquiring RoW for national infrastructure projects, including rules for negotiated sales and payment schedules for affected property owners.
The Philippine standard for compensating landowners displaced for government projects, according to the Constitution, is fair market value instead of full replacement cost.
Transportation Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John R. Batan told reporters that RoW acquisition is ongoing and compliant with the conditions set by loan agreements.
The DoJ opinion was issued to clarify the compensation rules governing projects entered into by the DoTr and entities like JICA.
JICA-funded projects must comply with a framework known as the Guidelines for Environmental and Social Consideration, which provides that: “people who must be resettled involuntarily and people whose means of livelihood will be hindered or lost must be sufficiently compensated and supported by project proponents etc. in a timely manner. Prior compensation, at full replacement cost, must be provided as much as possible.”
Major JICA-funded projects currently include the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR), which is co-financed by the Asian Development Bank, the loan agreement for which was signed in 2023.
The P873-billion NSCR is a 147-kilometer NSCR that will connect Malolos, Bulacan with Clark International Airport, and Tutuban, Manila with Calamba, Laguna. It will have 35 stations and three depots.
The Department of Finance and JICA recently signed the third tranche of the loan agreement worth 150 billion yen (around P57 billion) for the first phase of the Metro Manila Subway Project.
In April, the DoTr said it is expecting to complete the acquisition of the RoW for the Metro Manila Subway project by the first quarter of 2026.
The DoTr is also hoping to award the three remaining contract packages of the Metro Manila Subway project within the year. The remaining contract packages are valued at between P10 billion and P15 billion each.
Contract package (CP) 105 covers the construction of the station in Kalayaan Avenue and Bonifacio Global City; CP 108 covers the Lawton and Senate-DepEd stations; and CP 109 is the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 station. — Ashley Erika O. Jose