School building deals inked

MEGAWIDE CONSTRUCTION Corp. and the BSP & Co.-Vicente T. Lao Construction consortium have been formally awarded contracts for school building projects offered under the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) program.

The deals were signed on Thursday, the PPP Center announced. Both were notified earlier this month that they had won two of the PPP School Infrastructure Program Phase II’s (PSIP-II) five contracts. The three other packages will now be "undertaken through [the] regular procurement process," the PPP Center said.

Four companies had prequalified for the P8.8-billion PSIP-II: Megawide, BSP & Co.-Vicente T. Lao, the D. M. Wenceslao and Associates, Inc.-DATEM consortium and the Bright Future-Riverbanks group. D.M. Wenceslao-DATEM later withdrew while Bright Future-Riverbanks bid for two packages but did not pass a technical evaluation.

Megawide offered P2.255 billion to construct 2,440 classrooms in 982 schools in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Cordillera regions. BSP & Co.-Vicente T. Lao, meanwhile, bid P1,603 billion for 1,930 classrooms in 750 schools in the Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions.

Given the devastating quake that hit Bohol and Cebu earlier this week, the PPP Center said both contractors would ensure that the classrooms are quake-resistant and not built in disaster-prone areas.

The contracted 4,370 one- and two-storey facilities represent less than half the 10,679 the Education department wants constructed under the PSIP-II. The remaining 6,309 facilities are supposed to be built across 2,925 schools in the MIMAROPA, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Davao and SOCCSKSARGEN regions.

source:  Businessworld