BCDA tasked to do projects outside its sphere of competency?

This refers to the news item titled “BCDA to bid out Clark Railway project” (Business, 4/10/15). From the report, it would seem that the Department of Transportation and Communications had asked the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to bid out the construction of the Clark Rail Transit System, which will now run from Clark to Manila. Previously, the BCDA was supposed to do only the Malolos to Clark line, hence this development is somewhat perplexing.
It is common knowledge that the BCDA was charged as early as 1993 to construct the NorthRail from Malolos to Manila.  Now, 22 years later and with billions of pesos down the drain, what can be seen for all that money are only a few pylons. Not a meter of tracks, not a single bridge, nothing but nothing.
The Philippine National Railways (PNR) could only grind its teeth for it had allowed the dismantling of its tracks expecting that a new rail line would replace them, only to find out later that no such improvement would be forthcoming. Despite the debacle that was NorthRail, it is apparent that the DOTC still does not trust the PNR’s capabilities to implement projects relative to its own right-of-way as mandated by its charter, and leans on the BCDA instead for projects that are visibly not within its scope of competence.
The question: What has the BCDA done lately to warrant the renewed trust of the DOTC? Or is this only hype?—RAMON J. JIMENEZ , [email protected]