​MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Corp. (SMC) broke ground yesterday for the P69.3-billion Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7) project, marking the start of the construction of the 23-kilo-meter elevated railway from North Avenue in Quezon City to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan.

The project is being implemented by newly-formed SMC Mass Rail Transit 7 Inc., under SMC’s infrastructure subsidiary San Miguel Holdings Inc., with contractor Hyundai ROTEM and EEI Consortium.

MRT-7 will consist of 14 stations namely: Quezon North Avenue Joint Station; Quezon Memorial Circle; University Avenue; Tandang Sora; Don Antonio; Batasan; Manggahan; Dona Carmen; Regalado; Mindanao Avenue; Quirino; Sacred Heart; Tala; and San Jose del Monte.

The upcoming train line will connect with Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) which runs from North Avenue station in Quezon City until Taft station in Pasay City, with the provision to link to Light Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) covering Roosevelt station in Quezon City until Baclaran station in Pasay City.

From an initial daily capacity of 350,000 passengers, SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang said during the groundbreaking, the company is aiming to eventually bring up MRT-7’s capacity to cater to over 800,000 passengers per day.

During peak hours, MRT-7 will be able to accommodate 28,000 passengers per hour, per direction, and can be scaled up to serve 38,000 passengers.

Apart from the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the railway, SMC will also be building a 23-km road from the Balagtas Interchange of North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) until the Intermodal Transport Terminal in San Jose Del Monte, under its 35-year concession agreement with the government.

SMC will likewise put up a depot in San Jose del Monte to house a control center, administrative offices, warehouse and facilities for train cars.

“We expect to complete MRT-7 in three to four years,” Ang said.

Ang said SMC expects the MRT-7 to contribute about five percent of SMC’s revenues, when the railway starts operations.
Once the MRT-7 is completed, he said commuters’ travel time would be reduced to 30 minutes from two hours at present.
DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the new railway would provide relief to commuters who ply the heavily congested Commonwealth Avenue area for work and school on a daily basis.
 “The new railway system will not only significantly lessen travel time along this corridor, but also help decongest traffic in Caloocan and NLEx,” he said.

The project is also expected to provide other benefits.

“For wage-earners, it means having more choices when it comes to place of work. It gives our citizens greater access to education and healthcare.  For senior citizens and people with disabilities, an efficient public transport system allows them to travel more freely,” Ang said.

At present, Metro Manila is served by three rail lines such as LRT 1, LRT-2 which covers Santolan station in Pasig City until Recto station in Manila, and MRT-3.

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Source:  Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star)

Nearly half of all land parcels in the Philippines remain untitled due to lack of documentation and the slow process in land titling, according to the World Bank.
In its recently released East Asia and the Pacific Update, the World Bank said about 11 million, out of the total of 24 million parcels of land in the country, are untitled.
As a result, the World Bank said millions of parcels of lands that remain untitled prevent and/or discourage investments in property development and undermine the government’s ability to collect taxes.
“The high percentage of parcels [of land] lacking documentation is brought about by slow progress in the titling program and delays in the passage of a law authorizing streamlined titling of residential lands, and the absence of a complete cadastral map, which keeps track of the total lots during subdivision and consolidation,” the World Bank said.




Apart from untitled land parcels, the World Bank said the country’s land information is also not current due to high transfer costs.

High transfer costs, the bank said, discourage lot owners from registering transactions. This problem is compounded by incomplete cadastral surveys and outdated tax maps.
There are also problems, the World Bank added, on overlapping institutional mandates, complex regulations and weak coordination among multiple agencies.
Some of the agencies that have land jurisdictions are the Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the many cities and municipalities nationwide, among others.
“Outdated and inaccurate land records have the effect of reducing overall investor confidence in the registry and in the country’s property rights system,” the World Bank said.
In order to address these concerns, the World Bank urged the national government to employ land-use planning and zoning, which will be of particular use in urban areas.
Urban areas are constantly challenged with pollution, congestion, the need to create even more housing, commerce and industrial spaces to support the influx of migrants and establishment of businesses in cities.
Apart from these, local governments are unable to maximize the real-property taxes that they collect. If maximized, real-property taxes can help boost local government revenues.
To address this, the World Bank urged the creation of a National Valuation Authority to improve the efficiency and equity of real- property taxation.
“This would help increase transparency, ensure that properties better reflect market prices, and depoliticize the valuation process. Actual collection of the property tax can remain with local government units,” the World Bank said.


Source:  

Business Mirror
by Cai Ordinario ​
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/world-bank-to-philippines-create-land-valuation-office/