So, You want to be an AFCS Concessionaire in the Philippines?
In March 2026, a number of international, i.e. foreign, companies have attended the market sounding of the DOTr in Singapore (see (1), (2)). My empathy score is rather low, but even I worry about them.
During my time at AF Payments, I learned that the live of a concessionaire is not always easy. I often thought about what we could have done better or different.
That is why I have collected a few recommendations, especially for non-filipino companies who might consider entering the bidding process for the Philippines AFCS concession.
For the readers who cannot be bothered to read the whole thing, here are the top five tips:
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Money talks, bullshit walks. There is no synergy outside the fare collection business to make up for losses from operating the concession.
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“Verba volant, scripta manent" (thanks Grok). If it isn’t written down, it did not happen. If you do not have something in writing that is explicitly and provable acknowledged by the counter-party, you have nothing.
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Your customer is the government. You are not in an equal opportunity relationship! As soon as you are the concessionaire, you might as well be declared an enemy of the people.
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You and your staff will spent 50% of your time on reports, arguing over the meaning of the reports and defending yourselves against alleged KPI violations. You better get that part in the concession agreement right.
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Absolute everything will take longer and cost more. If you silently asked in your head "cost more than what?", you should not enter the bidding.
My Dream Team Philippine AFCS
Sports fans sometimes assemble their own virtual dream teams. The teams have nothing to do with reality other than the names of the players. The dream team will never play together, but apparently fans have some fun with it.
Team sports do not interest me. However, I have spent hours watching YouTube videos of people repairing an Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC). In my defense, this AGC actually went to the moon and back!
It is therefore not entirely out of character that I thought it would be fun to assemble my dream team Philippines AFCS, and I hope you won’t find this any stranger than a "football dream team".
My article has become rather long, even so I have still only scratched the surface. In case you do not want to read the whole thing, these are the main principles of my ideal AFCS:
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Full transparency and openness. All specifications are in the public domain.
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The rules are designed explicitly to allow anybody to join the system, from the smallest provider somewhere in the provinces to the biggest operator.
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Interoperability is based on ubiquitous acceptance of transit cards and optional support for QR tickets and general purpose payment cards.
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Cost is driven by competition, not by government regulation. The only function in the system that requires a contract with the scheme provider (government) is the central clearing and settlement system.
Bidding for new Philipines Automated Fare Collection System Concession started
In 2014, AF Payments won the concession for the automated fare collection system of the three light rail systems in Manila. The concession was supposed to run for ten years, but as far as I know, it is still going, so they must have agreed to extend by a few years.
During my time with AFPI, I devoted a lot of time dealing with the Concession and the government. At times my patience was severely tested.
As such I got my virtual popcorn out when I learned the exciting news that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) has announced that they will open the bidding for a new Philippine Automated Fare Collection System (PAFCS) concession this year.
I confess that I am not the "bigger person" here. I am fascinated by the spectacle of somebody else being lead to the slaughter.
There is not much more information about the content of the bidding document which was developed by ADB (1). As usual, I took some educated guesses and summarized the little there is in my new blog post.