PPP Center gets P300M

MANILA, Philippines—The government has released P300 million for its public-private partnership (PPP) program fund.

The move is seen to pave the way for the inflow of counterpart funding from multilateral agencies.

Already, five major transportation projects are up for bidding. Also, two programs for the health sector are being proposed by the Department of Health (DoH) for development, according to Philamer Torio, executive director of the newly established PPP Center.

Torio told reporters that the DoH was proposing a project to develop the 5-in-1 vaccine pentavalent and to modernize a number of public hospitals in the Philippines.

He said this on the sidelines of the Experience-Sharing and Workshop on Public-Private Partnerships in Makati City.

The British Embassy and the UK Trade and Investment led the workshop, which was co-organized by Code:Red and the La Liga Policy Institute.

The pentavalent vaccine combines five different vaccines in one injection to protect against five diseases: Haemophilus influenzae type B disease, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus and Hepatitis-B. According to studies, children immunized with the 5-in-1 vaccine do not need additional vaccination for the Diphtheria vaccine or the Hepatitis B vaccine.

Edward Farquharson, project director of International Infrastructure UK, said social infrastructure such as hospitals and schools have been successfully implemented using PPP. In the UK, for example, PPPs have been used to upgrade such facilities, he said.

The PPP program is seen to be the cornerstone of the Aquino administration’s medium-term strategy for economic growth that is expected to decrease poverty and distribute wealth more evenly among Filipinos.

“The Philippine government has already set aside P300 million for the Project Development and Monitoring Facility. This was the one stated in EO 8 (Executive Order 8, signed in 2010),” Torio said in a phone interview.