Teo hoping PPP will solve Mindanao’s infrastructure lack

DAVAO CITY—The lack of transportation infrastructure may dampen the government’s aim of increasing tourism in Mindanao during President Duterte’s term.

But, according to Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo, this could be addressed through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program, a decades-old initiative that only came to fruition in the last administration.

“Yes, we are looking at tapping the [PPP] Program. There is actually a budget for us, but our budget for 2017 was already used last year,” she told the BusinessMirror in a chance interview here.

She was referring to the Tourism Road Infrastructure Project Prioritization Criteria, more commonly known as TRIPPC, a program that aims to develop roads leading to tourist sites.

The P60-billion tourism road-infrastructure master plan is part of the convergence program of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of
Tourism (DOT).

It was pioneered in 2011, with the aim of constructing, upgrading, rehabilitating and improving roughly 463 roads and bridges.

Among the major tourism road projects completed and ongoing include the 5.6-kilometers access road to Puerto Princesa City Underground River, also leading to mangrove forest, white-sand beach, Sabang zipline and Ugong rock mountain in Palawan; the 44.6-km Taytay-El Nido Road, Palawan; the 11-km Ambangeg Junction National Road to Mount Pulag, known for its magnificent view of sunrise and sunset, in Benguet; the 24-km access roads to Donsol, Sorsogon, famous for whale-shark viewing, locally known as butanding; the 41-km Panglao Island Circumferential Road leading to location of  Bohol’s beach resorts and dive spots; and the 31-km Island Garden City of Samal Circumferential Road, which provides access to Pearl Farm Beach Resort and Samal Botanical Garden on Samal Island, Davao del Norte.

“I’m sure by 2018, we will have a bigger budget. But for now, we are asking for an additional P200 million to support other projects,” Teo said.

This will, hopefully, support the tourism department’s target of scaling up tourist arrivals in Mindanao through President Duterte’s term.

“The target that has been set is to really increase it by 10 [percent] to 20 percent, but that would actually depend upon the logistics support when it comes to infrastructure,”  Tourism Assistant Secretary Eden Josephine L. David said.

Over the last six years, tourist arrivals in the five regions in Mindanao grew by 10 percent on the average.

Last year saw Region 9 reporting a total of 800,000 visitors; Region 10, with 2.7 million arrivals; Region 11, with 2.8 million visitors; Region 12, with about a million arrivals; and Region 13, with 1.2 million visitors.

“There’s really an increase in number of tourists for Mindanao over the last few years,” David said. “That’s why there is a Mindanao Logistics Plan, which will support road travel across Mindanao.”

The tourism department has partnered with the Mindanao Development Authority to craft the Mindanao Logistics Plan, a proposed blueprint that aims to complement infrastructure development in the area.

“The Mindanao Tourism Development Plan would have to be started by 2017, when we start consolidating the efforts of each of the regions,” David said.

source:  Business Mirror

Duterte Plans $1 Billion Airport, Rail in Former U.S. Base

The Philippines plans to award at least $1 billion of contracts to build an airport and a railway to transform a former U.S. military base into a commercial hub as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s push to distribute wealth outside congested Manila.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority wants these and other major infrastructure projects for the area to be awarded by the second half of 2017 and for most to be completed as early as 2019, its Chief Executive Officer Vince Dizon said in an interview in Makati City. The authority will decide by the first quarter of next year whether to invite bids to build or operate the infrastructure, or do both, he said.

“We want the investment community to know that this government isn’t just about addressing crime and drugs,” Dizon, 43, said Nov. 11. “We’re also here to build, build and build.”

Duterte, who won the presidential election six months ago, is lifting infrastructure spending to a record and allocating resources away from the capital, Manila, where traffic and transport logjams cost the economy at least 2.4 billion pesos ($49 million) a day. His government is attempting to fast track development of the planned Clark Green City, which was carved out of the former Clark Air Base used by U.S. forces during World War II. It received just one bid last year to develop part of the proposed alternative capital city.

At 9,450 hectares (23,000 acres), Clark Green City would dwarf the main financial district of Makati in metropolitan Manila, home to the nation’s stock exchange and banks’ headquarters.

Building infrastructure outside the capital is key to attracting investment and boosting the country’s growth potential to as much as 9 percent, Rosemarie Edillon, deputy director general at the National Economic and Development Authority, said Thursday. Third-quarter economic growth was 7.1 percent, the fastest in Asia.

Read more: Duterte’s spending plans for next year

The state body will invite bids for a new 15 billion-peso airport terminal in Clark, north of Manila, according to Dizon. It will include a new international terminal that will double Clark airport’s current capacity to 8 million passengers under the first phase of a 30-year plan developed by Aeroports de Paris, he said.

It will also invite bidders for some projects identified during Duterte’s state visit to Beijing in October. These include a cargo rail line costing as much as $700 million, running from Clark to the Subic coastal area northwest of Manila, an industrial park and facilities for telecommunications and utilities.

If the investments materialize, Clark Green City would bring a new lease of life to an area that now comprises a main industrial zone with factories for companies including semiconductor-maker Texas Instruments Inc. and plane-engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc and an airport with limited international flights. Under the government’s plan, the existing Clark airport would be converted to a VIP terminal when the new aerodome is up.

Dizon said Bases Conversion will continue to bid out rights to develop more plots of land in Clark, a process started under former President Benigno Aquino.

Duterte’s government may choose to fund infrastructure projects through loans obtained at cheaper rates and then offer contracts to companies to run them, Dizon said. Under Aquino, the preference was to let private companies handle the projects at the onset, and such an arrangement remains an option, the executive said.

SSS plans to bid anew Manila Bay property

STATE-RUN Social Security System (SSS) plans to again bid out the long-term lease of a prime property near Manila Bay’s fast-rising gaming hub following a failed bidding last year.

SSS president and chief executive Emilio S. de Quiros also told reporters that they were considering to hire three fund managers that will manage P1 billion in investments each as soon as President Duterte has appointed the members of the Social Security Council, the highest governing body of the pension fund.

On the sidelines of SSS’s 59th anniversary celebration on Friday, De Quiros said they planned to publish the invitation to bid for the long-term, 10- to 20-year lease of the HK Sun Plaza property this month.

“The only reason why we’re leasing the HK Sun Plaza is that it is very close to the Entertainment City. The way we look at it, it may not be a good time, at this point, to sell it because we’ll see prices move up eventually. So we’re leaving it to the next administration, and later on whoever will manage SSS. We think he should keep it,” De Quiros explained.

In December last year, the SSS declared a failure of bidding because Filinvest Land Inc. did not submit its lease bid for the 25-year lease of HK Sun Plaza and an adjacent vacant lot.

Gotianun-led property developer Filinvest Land was the lone entity that had purchased the terms of reference for the lease of the HK Sun Plaza property covering a 44,000-square meter warehouse as well as the 6,000-square meter vacant lot located at the Financial Center area along Macapagal Ave. and Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City.

The SSS had pegged the minimum bid on rental rate at P16 million a month for the 25-year lease period, including a six-month fit-out period.

Besides the Pasay property, De Quiros noted that the SSS was also selling condominium units.

In an invitation to bid published last month, the SSS invited interested bidders for 19 condominium units, with each having two 13-square meter parking slots, as well as 17 extra parking slots located in Bella Villa One Condominium at No. 5 Hamburg Street, Merville Park, Barangay Merville, Parañaque City. These assets were worth a total of at least P134 million.

Also, De Quiros said they would again look for three fund managers after their search last year failed.

“The problem was [that] a lot of the banks and the trust companies [that expressed interest] had problems getting BIR clearances. We hope that they would be able to resolve it this year,” De Quiros explained.

The SSS had required interested fund managers to secure a tax clearance from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

De Quiros said they planned to hire the fund managers before the year ends so that they could start investing next year.

The SSS chief said the venture would allow them to “test the waters” as he noted that the amount of funds to be handled by the fund managers—a total of P3 billion—was “very small” compared with the reserve fund of about P450 billion. “We would like to get the hang of it; we’d like to see how it will perform compared to in-house investment,” De Quiros said.

source:  PH Daily Inquirer