DOTC eyes rebid of LRT 1 extension deal

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC)  may rebid the P60-billion deal to extend the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 to Cavite province after three bidders withdrew Thursday while the only remaining bidder, Metro Pacific Investments Corp.-led Light Rail Manila Consortium, failed to comply with the auction requirements, officials said.

Still, the DOTC stopped short of declaring a failed bid. It said it would review all its options for the public private partnership deal, one of the DOTC’s largest, said Transportation Undersecretary and head of the bids and awards committee Jose Lotilla.

Cosette Canilao, executive director of the PPP Center, told reporters that a rebidding was one of the options that would be considered.

Only Light Rail submitted its technical and financial proposals on Thursday even after Metro Pacific’s partner, Ayala Corp., backed out of this project.  The two have an exclusive alliance to bid for railway projects in Metro Manila.

Consortiums led by San Miguel Corp., DMCI Holdings and MTD-Samsung of Malaysia and South Korea, withdrew their bids, Lotilla said.

The DOTC did not share their reasons for pulling out.

“Remember, the bidders are commercial entities, their primary concern is financial,” said Lotilla without elaborating.

He also declined to call Thursday’s exercise an outright rejection of Light Rail’s proposal even as he noted that the company’s offer did not comply with the government’s requirements.

“The terms of the bidding are such that it is required that the bidder must accept all of the terms and conditions of the government. They had certain conditions,” Lotilla said.

“Basically they are saying the terms and conditions today are not what they are willing to accept,” Lotilla added.