The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has begun interim reporting of MRT-3 system audit results to the team of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) led by Undersecretary for Railways TJ Batan.

No details were provided by MRT-3 of the meeting which was held Friday morning in their office.

Present in the meeting were representatives from the MRT-3 Joint Advisory Team of the Australian Agency for International Development and the Asian Development Bank.

"Initial results were presented but please note that the due diligence study is still ongoing so we cannot release reports based on partial results," said MRT-3 spokesperson Aly Narvaez in a Viber message.

"The objective of the conduct of the study is to define the scope of work of the new rehabilitation and maintenance service provider," added Narvaez.

The due diligence is being done by the Japanese government to identify the needed rehabilitation work to be done by the new rehabilitation and maintenance service provider, Narvaez said. After due diligence finish, a loan agreement with Japan will be signed with the rehabilitation set around May.

The system audit began on February 1 led by at least 50 engineers and railway experts from JICA

Japan has pledged to fund the rehabilitation and maintenance of the MRT 3 after an exchange of note verbales between the Philippines and Japan on January 10.

This involves securing Official Development Assistance (ODA) financing under Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) Special Terms for Economic Partnership.

The Philippines ended its maintenance contract with Busan Universal Railway Inc before its three year deal on November due to frequent breakdown of the 16.9 kilometer line along EDSA. DMS