January 5, 2012, Malaya Business Insight
MORE than 50 percent of the P550-million Project Development and Monitoring Facility (PDMF) fund is already being used for the pre-investment studies of 10 Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects slated for rollout this year, an official of the PPP Center said.
Cosette Canilao, executive director of the PPP Center, said in a press conference yesterday that P284 million of the government’s PDMF revolving fund is being used to support the feasibility studies of the 10 projects that were approved last year.
A total of 16 PPP projects are being prepared for 2012. These include the 10 projects supported by PDMF. Canilao said that at the very least, eight projects will be rolled out this year.
It is estimated that all of the projects cost between P80 billion and P142 billion. The sharing of the costs of the projects between the government and the private sector has not been figured out pending finalization of feasibility studies.
Earlier, the banking system committed full support to the PPP program.
The PDMF, managed and administered by the PPP Center, is a funding facility that can be used to help implementing agencies structure, prepare and competitively tender bankable PPP projects.
It can be availed of for the pre-investment activities of PPP projects, such as the conduct of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies and the preparation of business cases, tender documents and draft contracts.
The PDMF was established with P300-million financing from the government and co-financed by Australia, which provided $6 million under an Asian Development Bank technical assistance package.
Canilao said that for this year, an additional P160 million has been allotted by the government for the PDMF fund.
The projects being supported by the fund facility are the second phase of the Department of Health’s Vaccine Self-Sufficiency Project and the Philippine Orthopedic Center modernization project, as well as the Department of Education’s School Infrastructure Project (Batch 1).
The PDMF fund is also being used for the Department of Transportation and Communication’s Laguindingan airport development project in common automatic fare collection system, the Mactan International Airport’s new passenger terminal building in Cebu, and the new Bohol (Panglao) airport development project.
Also included in the list of projects funded by the PDMF are the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s new water supply source project, and the operation and maintenance of the Angat hydro-electric power plant auxiliary turbines No. 4/5 and the Macua mini-hydro power plant.
The feasibility study of the Department of Agriculture’s establishment of cold chain systems is also supported by the PDMF fund.
Canilao said that the DepEd’s 10,000 classrooms program and the DOH’s Vaccine Self-Sufficiency Program may be ready for rollout in the first quarter of the year.
The feasibility studies of the remaining six projects are being funded by multilateral or implementing agencies.
These projects are the NLEX-SLEX connector road; the Balara water hub; the Cavite-Laguna (CALA) expressway; the LRT 2 east extension, the Puerto Princesa airport, and the grains central project.
The Aquino administration was supposed to bid out 10 projects this year but only one, the Daang Hari-South Luzon expressway (SLEX) link road was successfully auctioned. Ayala Corp. won the bid to build and operate the project with its offer of P902 million.
