More transport projects readied
September 22, 2014 at 13:16
Posted on September 18, 2014 10:22:00 PM
By Chrisee J. V. Dela Paz
EIGHT PUBLIC-PRIVATE partnership (PPP) projects under the Transportation department are targeted to be rolled out next quarter in a bid to expand and modernize key international and secondary gateways, officials said in a forum yesterday.
“This means we are looking at publishing invitations to bid for the eight [deals] within Q4 (fourth quarter of 2014). The bidding process normally takes six to eight months,” Transportation Spokesperson Michael Arthur C. Sagcal explained on the sidelines of the UK Transport Solutions Business Forum in Makati City yesterday.
“Hopefully we can award these projects within the term of President (Benigno S.C.) Aquino (III)… in 2016.”
In his presentation at the forum, Transportation Undersecretary for Planning Rene K. Limcaoco identified the projects as: P5.88-billion Davao Airport Expansion and Operation and Maintenance (O&M); P4.03-billion Iloilo Airport Expansion and O&M; P3.61-billion Bacolod Airport Expansion and O&M; P17.47-billion Davao Sasa Port; P19.33-billion Motor Vehicle Inspection System; P2.26-billion Laguindingan Airport Expansion and O&M; P7.14-billion New Bohol Airport Development and O&M; and P5.81-billion Puerto Princesa Airport Expansion and O&M.
Five of these projects — involving Davao, Iloilo and Bacolod airports, as well as Davao Sasa Port and Motor Vehicle Inspection System — are up for approval in the next National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board meeting, Mr. Sagcal told reporters.
NEDA Deputy Director-General Rolando G. Tungpalan said in a text message that the next NEDA Board meeting is “likely to be in early October, but no definite date yet.”
The NEDA Board on June 19 already approved the Laguindingan Airport Expansion and O&M, New Bohol Airport Development and O&M as well as Puerto Princesa Airport Expansion and O&M.
Mr. Sagcal said his department still needs to “wait for NEDA Board approval of the other three airports (Davao, Iloilo and Bacolod) before finalizing terms for the bundle of the six gateways.”
“I think we can be pretty confident that they will be bundled,” Mr. Sagcal said.
“What we have to determine is which of them will be combined. We are planning one bidding process for the provincial airport deals, but several packages. As of now, that’s what I can say offhand.”
Saying “[t]hese are projects we intend to achieve over the next five years,” Mr. Limcaoco stressed: “Our airport progress is obviously to expand and modernize our key international gateways… Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Mactan-Cebu (International Airport), Davao (Francisco Bangoy International Airport) and Clark (International Airport),” even as the department is also modernizing secondary airports like Puerto Princesa, Bohol and Laguindingan.
In his speech at the forum, Transportation Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Jose Perpetuo M. Lotilla noted that “[i]n the Philippine transportation sector, the biggest challenges include the need to fill the infrastructure gap and deliver services to ensure mobility in a fast-growing country.”
Since the PPP program’s launch in late 2010, three projects have been awarded by the Transportation department: P64.9-billion Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 Cavite Extension; P1.72-billion Automatic Fare Collection System; and P17.52-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport Passenger Terminal Building. The department has also rolled out the P2.5-billion Integrated Transport System (ITS)-Southwest Terminal; P4.50-billion ITS-South Terminal; and O&M for LRT Line 2.
