A MALACAÑANG order to reopen bidding for the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX) contract has left erstwhile qualified bidders on the periphery, watching how diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. of Ramon S. Ang and businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) would battle for the P35.42-billion public-private partnership (PPP) deal.
There were four bidders for CALAX the first time it was put on the auction block last June 2: San Miguel’s subsidiary Optimal Infrastructure Development, Inc.; MPIC-led MPCALA Holdings, Inc.; Team Orion of Ayala Corp.’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc’s Aboitiz Land, Inc.; and MTD Philippines, Inc.
Team Orion -- the highest bidder -- and MTD Philippines are out of the race, BusinessWorldreported earlier this week.
Now, only two are expected to show up in the rebidding: the groups of Messrs. Ang and Pangilinan.
The MPIC group said on Monday it has renewed its bid bond for the CALAX project.
“We renewed our bid bond as we want to play safe, but we want to see the terms first before confirming our participation,” Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. President Ramoncito S. Fernandez told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Balintawak late on Monday, speaking on behalf of MPCALA Holdings.
That bid bond -- submitted as guarantee that the company has the financial muscle to carry on with the project should it bag the contract -- expired on Sunday, although two weeks ago the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), through a letter, gave the bidders an option to renew it.
MTD Philippines President Isaac S. David said in a Nov. 23 interview that the bond was P355 million and was placed during the June 2 tender.
MTD Philippines opted not to renew the bid bond, Mr. David had said.
P20-BILLION PREMIUM
Ayala Corp. of Team Orion said on Nov. 24 it will not “stand in the way” of the government’s decision to rebid CALAX, and reiterated it will not participate.
Yesterday, Team Orion said in a statement that it is “disappointed” over the Office of the President’s order, but voiced hopes that the outcome of the rebidding would benefit the government.
“We expect the rebidding to be conducted swiftly, above board and in line with established bidding procedures in order to ensure that the government obtains the P20 billion it had assumed to gain,” Team Orion said in the statement.
The Ayala-Aboitiz consortium was referring to the P20.1-billion premium on top of project cost that the San Miguel group supposedly offered for the CALAX deal. That bid would have topped Team Orion’s offered premium of P11.66 billion, MPIC group’s P11.33 billion and MTD Philippines’ P922 million.
But San Miguel was disqualified on a technicality concerning its bid security, prompting it to seek Malacañang’s intervention.
A rebidding would give San Miguel a fresh chance to bag the contract, but that could also mean the floor price could be a premium of P20 billion. Public Works officials and PPP Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao did not respond to requests for comments.
The Public Works department’s bids committee will convene this week to ready the terms of the rebidding, Ariel C. Angeles, officer-in-charge of PPP Service of DPWH, said in a Nov. 23 phone interview.
The CALAX project involves a 35-year state contract to finance, construct and operate a 47-kilometer four-lane toll road connecting two growth areas south of the capital. The expressway will start from the end of Cavite Expressway in Kawit, Cavite and terminate at the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx)-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.
CALAX is DPWH’s third PPP project after the Daang Hari-SLEx road link awarded to the Ayala group and NAIA Expressway contract that went to San Miguel group.
MPIC is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Company Ltd., the others being Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Philex Mining Corp. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld. -- report from Chrisee Jalyssa V. Dela Paz
source: Businessworld
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