SM PRIME Holdings, Inc. hopes to resolve the deadlock on a project that will link Metro Manila’s two elevated railways before President Benigno S. C. Aquino III steps down from office in June.
 
SM Prime President Hans T. Sy told reporters it is “open” to a proposal to build a “double station” for the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and Light Rail Transit Line 1 — one in front of its SM City North EDSA and another near the Ayala group’s TriNoma mall.
 
“We are getting there. We are talking. There are still some details to clarify or things like that but we are open…Whatever is good for the government, for the country, we will do it,” Mr. Sy said on the sidelines of the Annual Reception for the Banking Community on Tuesday night.
 
Asked if a compromise may be achieved before the end of the term of the Aquino administration, he said: “I hope so because we have to deal with whoever comes next.”
 
In 2014, SM Prime secured a Supreme Court stay order stopping the Department of Transportation and Communications from transferring the original location of the common station in front of SM North to TriNoma.
 
“Our position has always been there. If they want double station, we are fine with that. But we just have to make sure that we don’t want to go through another exercise of being bumped off… It’s so stressful… We are letting the legal handle that and make sure that it’s final,” Mr. Sy said. — Krista Angela M. Montealegre