Interaksyon.com, 18 December 2012
By: Likha Cuevas-Miel
MANILA – (UPDATED 6:07 p.m.) The Aquino administration is set to bid out two public-private partnership projects (PPP) this week, the PPP Center said on Tuesday.
In a briefing, Cosette Canilao, PPP executive director, told reporters that the government will publish on December 19 the invitation to bid for the operation and maintenance (O&M) contract of the Mactan International Airport Passenger Terminal, as well as that for the School Infrastructure Project Phase 2.
She said the government is still working out the details of the two other projects -the connector road between North Luzon Expressway and South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) as well as the Cavite-Laguna Expressway – so that it would be able to publish the invitation to bid by the last week of the year.
If the PPP Center is successful in rolling out these four projects this month, then the government would surpass its target of launching eight PPPs for this year.
So far, the government has rolled out the School Infrastructure Project Phase 1, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Expressway Phase 1, Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT1) rehabilitation and O&M, the National Orthopedic building, the Angat Hydroelectric Power Project, and the Automatic Fare collection.
Canilao said the private sector told the government to go easy on the rollout of the PPP projects as to give them enough time to prepare.
Right of way acquisition
Some in the private sector told the government that it should secure first the right of way for these projects before rolling these out to avoid delays and problems such as those encountered in the Daang Hari Cavite-SLEX Connector Road.
Canilao, however, said doing that would cause more delays on the part of the government, adding that the roll-out and the acquisition of the right of way can be done simultaneously.
“Why would we delay the process when it’s more or less one whole year from the time of the rollout before you can even issue the notice to proceed because you would still have to agree on the detailed engineering design,” she said.
“That’s why we are looking for ways how it can secure right of way during implementation, how can we unclog the bottlenecks,” she said.
Canilao said the Daang Hari is on schedule despite the snags encountered early in its implementation.
Last October, Ayala Corp submitted the detailed engineering for the second segment after issues with the Toll Regulatory Board and the South Luzon Tollways Corp were ironed out.
Last week, Ayala Land submitted the detailed plans for the connection of Segment 1 and 2 for presentation to the Department oif Public Works and Highways tomorrow.
These PPP projects would be exempted from the election ban as the Commission on Elections told the PPP Center that only projects involving government funds are prohibited. Projects should have been awarded 45 days before the elections and the ban would be effective until 45 days after the elections.
