Japan has extended a 17.4-bilion-yen loan package, nearly P7 billion in local currency, allowing the Philippines to rehabilitate MRT-3.
The package represents the second phase of the project designed to improve passenger convenience and promote the use of public transportation in a section of Metro Manila that happens to be the busiest.
The loan will cost taxpayers a sub-market or concessional rate of only 0.1 percent a year for 40 years, including a 10-year grace period, and comes on the heels of an earlier Japan-funded loan restoring safety, comfort, and speed along the 16.9-kilometer deteriorating rail line.
Japan’s ad interim charges affairs Kenichi Matsuda and Foreign Affairs Secretary signed the exchange of notes that formalized the financing agreement on Friday at the Embassy of Japan in Manila.
