Source: Business Mirror, 08 April 2012
THIRTEEN new projects are awaiting funds from the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center to help finance their costly pre-investment studies.
PPP Center Executive Director Cosette Canilao told the BusinessMirror the projects included five that would be undertaken by the Department of Health (DOH) and eight by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).
The expected amount will come from the Project Development Monitoring Fund (PDMF), a revolving fund managed by the PPP Center that finances costly pre-investment studies needed to make projects viable under PPP arrangements. The amount spent for these studies are eventually reimbursed by the winning bidder to the PPP Center but only after the project is awarded.
“We received requests from the DOH and the DOTC. The PDMF Board is scheduled to meet this week,” Canilao said.
She also said that in the next two weeks, the PPP Center expects that the inivitation to pre-qualify for the bidding of the LRT Line 1 South Extension may already be published by the DOTC.
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board approved the LRT Line 1 South Extension project before the government went on Lenten break. The P61.53-billion project, which seeks to extend the 32-year-old LRT Line 1 to Cavite, will be financed through PPP with P30.93 billion from the private sector and P30.59 billion from the government.
The project involves the construction of eight stations with provision for two additional stations. The proposed eight stations are the Redemptorist Station on Redemptorist Street and Roxas Boulevard; the MIA Station near the Coastal Mall, also on Roxas Boulevard; the Asia World Station near Asia World Development, Roxas Boulevard; the Ninoy Aquino Station on the east side of the Ninoy Aquino Bridge that passes through the Parañaque River; the Dr. Santos Station, south of Dr. Santos Road; the Las Piñas Station, east of Quirino Avenue and south of the Las Piñas River; the Zapote station, north of the Alabang-Zapote flyover; and the Niyog Station, south of the intersection of the Niyog Road bypass and Aguinaldo Highway.
The Neda said the two provisional stations are the Manuyo Uno and Talaba stations. The Dr. Santos, Zapote and Niyog stations, will also be designed as intermodal facilities so that passengers could easily transfer from them to other road-based transportation services.
Earlier, the Neda Board approved 12 projects worth P133 billion. They included the LRT Line 1 South and the E-Trike projects of the Department of Energy; the Agus VI Hydroelectric Power Plant Uprating project of the National Power Corp.; the Land Transportation Office Infrastructure and Information System (LTO-IIS) Project of the Department of Transportation and Communications; and the Jalaur River Multipurpose Irrigation Project Phase II, Umayam River Irrigation Project (URIP) and Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project (CMIPP)-Irrigation Component Phase II of National Irrigation Administration.
Other projects included the Bridge Construction Project for Expanded Agrarian Reform Communities (ARC) Development—Umiray Bridge of the Department of Agrarian Reform; Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Program (INREMP) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; the Baler-Casiguran Road Improvement Project and Samar Pacific Coastal Road Project of the Department of Public Works and Highways; and Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Measures in Low-Lying Areas of Pampanga Bay Project of the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Education.
The Neda Board is the governing body that sets major development policy directions for the Philippines, while the Neda Secretariat serves as its research and technical support arm. President Benigno S. Aquino III is chairman of the board while Paderanga serves as vice chairman.
The Neda Board members are the secretaries of the Departments of Agriculture, Budget and Management, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, Finance, Public Works and Highways, Science and Technology, Tourism, Trade and Industry, Transportation and Communications, and Presidential Management Staff; the deputy governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; the chairmen of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and Mindanao Development Authority; the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; and the president of Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines.
