“The NoA (notice of award) is set for release tomorrow,” Ariel C. Angeles, officer-in-charge and director of DPWH’s Public-Private Partnership Service, said in a mobile phone reply, as Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson confirmed separately via text: “Yes, we will award tomorrow.”
Asked if MPIC-backed MPACALA Holdings, Inc. -- which submitted a higher premium over rival San Miguel Corp. -- passed the financial evaluation, Mr. Angeles replied: “They passed. Resolution [is] already approved.”
MPCALA offered a premium of P27.3 billion on top of P35.42-billion project cost, nearly 23% more than the P22.2-billion bid of San Miguel Corp. subsidiary Optimal Infrastructure Development, Inc. DPWH had set a P20.1-billion floor premium for this tender -- Optimal’s bid in the first auction on June 2 last year.
The NoA for the CALAX project was originally scheduled on June 4. Asked why award was slightly delayed, Mr. Angeles explained: “The NoA was routed to all SBAC (special bids and awards committee) members. And the schedule is still ahead of the original timetable and still within the time frame allowed under the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) law.”
In a separate interview, MPIC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said his group will defer negotiations for partnerships until the group formally receives the NoA. “Ayaw namin makipagusap kasi wala pa ‘yung notice of award. (We don’t want to talk to prospective partners because the notice of award has yet to be issued). Of course we’re the highest bidder based on the bid, but I think until we receive the notice of award, we are not officially the winner,” he told reporters on the sidelines of IdeaSpace Finals Night in Ortigas district on Friday night. “When we get that, maybe we can start talking to potential partners. But until we receive that notice, it’s inappropriate for the group to be talking.”
Contract signing is targeted on July 28, when the winning bidder has to pay 20% of the premium. The balance will be paid over 10 years.
Detailed engineering design will be prepared from July 2015 to 2016, construction will be undertaken from July 2016 to July 2020, while operation and maintenance period will be from July 2020 to July 2050.
The CALAX project involves a 35-year contract to finance, build and operate a 47-kilometer four-lane toll road between Cavite Expressway in Kawit, Cavite and the South Luzon Expressway-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.
President Benigno S. C. Aquino III last year ordered a fresh auction after San Miguel, whose subsidiary was disqualified on technical grounds concerning its bid security, appealed to Malacañang. Neither the Team Orion consortium of Ayala-owned AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Aboitiz Land, Inc. and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Ltd. -- the highest compliant bidder in the first tender -- nor MTD Philippines, Inc. joined the new auction.
AIRPORT PARTNER
On another public-private partnership project that MPIC wants to bid for -- the P108.19 billion worth of contracts to develop, operate and maintain (O&M) five regional airports -- Mr. Pangilinan said the group will likely team up with a major airport operator from Europe.
Asked if MPIC was also in talks with potential Japanese partners, he replied: “We have spoken to some Japanese partners, but I think we have decided on a particular partner. This is a big airport operator in the world.”
Pressed for the firm’s identity, Mr. Pangilinan replied: “It’s probably European. Maybe we’ll announce it when we decide to bid. We’re just waiting for the terms of bid from the government.”
The Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) was supposed to release last week the final bidding terms for the regional airport project auction, PPP Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao had said on May 30. Sought for updates, DoTC Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo M. Lotilla, who also heads the department’s Pre-Qualification, Bids and Awards Committee, yesterday said via text that “revised terms will still have to be released this week.”
Qualification documents will have to be submitted within 40 days from release of final Instructions to Prospective Bidders, the department had said. The government has set a two-stage bidding process for the regional airport auction, which means qualification documents are submitted separately from financial and technical proposals, according to an invitation to pre-qualify and bid published in newspapers last December. In that invitation, the government asked interested parties to submit offers to finance, design, build, operate and maintain the facilities for 30 years.
The five regional airports up for auction are grouped into two bundles: the first being Bacolod-Silay Airport (P20.26 billion) and Iloilo Airport (P30.40 billion); and the second package consisting of the New Bohol (Panglao) Airport (P2.34 billion), Laguindingan Airport (P14.62 billion), and Davao Airport (P40.57 billion).
The department had excluded the P5.81-billion Puerto Princesa O&M and Development Project because of the tourism potential in the area, and said it will likely be bundled with a “tourism airport-centric strategy” for Palawan.
The consortium of MPIC and JG Summit Holdings, Inc. is one of five groups that bought bid documents for the regional airport project auction. The four others were San Miguel Corp.; Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc.; air cargo warehousing firm Philippine Skylanders, Inc.; and the group of Megawide Construction Corp. and Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd.
Nine PPP deals cumulatively worth some P136.5 billion have been awarded since the flagship infrastructure program was launched in the third quarter of 2010.
MPIC is one of three Philippine subsidiaries 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.
sourcE: Businessworld
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