Any sketch of the imagination
You citizens of this country, where monstrous traffic jams have been the standard everyday frustration for millions of people for the past decades, should be pleased to know that the Aquino (Part II) administration could still imagine that it would complete “major” infrastructure projects in the next two years.
At least it was the most promising statement that we received lately from Cosette Canilao, executive director of the PPP Center, the coordinator of the PPP (public private partnership), supposedly the flagship infrastructure program of our leader Benigno Simeon (aka BS).
In the business community, owing perhaps to its poor track record, the slow-moving PPP program has been known as “power point presentation” during the past three and a half years of the Aquino (Part II) administration.
Up to today, some three years after the administration introduced to us the PPP program with a loud bang, the business community has seen only some rough sketches of the imagined major infrastructure projects in the program. Still, according to Canilao, the administration could still envision the completion of at least five PPP projects before the end of the term of our leader BS in 2016.
In the next two years, we should only expect some frantic rush to finish those five infrastructure projects, which nevertheless would include only two road projects, namely the Daang Hari toll way and the Naia Expressway.
The other two would include the P24-billion school infrastructure project (phases one and two, thus meriting “two counts” in the five major PPP projects imagined by the PPP Center for completion in the next two years), which was supposed to build around 20,000 classrooms. This could reduce the shortage in our public school to only 46,000 classrooms, meaning that more than two million pupils and students would still have no classrooms two years from today.
The other PPP project would be the P5-billion “modernization” of the Philippine Orthopedic Center.
Now, regarding those two road projects in the PPP program, you suffering citizens of this republic should be pleased to know that, in terms of traffic relief in the metropolis, those projects would hardly make any difference.
The Daang Hari toll road would be the short four-kilometer connection between the SLEx and some towns of Cavite, benefiting mainly the huge subdivisions there, which would be the development projects of the Ayala group and the real estate companies of former Senate President Manuel Villar.
By the way, the Ayala group would also be the proponent of the Daang Hari toll road, originally scheduled for completion this year, although the project has been delayed mainly because of the “changes” made by the proponent in the original design.
As we reported previously, the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highway) has awarded the Daang Hari toll road contract to the Ayala group way back in 2011 for completion last June. As things now stand, the Ayala group has hardly done actual construction in the project. One of the problems in this “major” PPP infrastructure project was said to be the “additional cost” in the changes made by the proponent, amounting to between P200 million and P500 million, although neither the PPP Center nor the DPWH would reveal the actual figure on the “additional cost.”
To top it all, the Aquino (Part II) administration has been quiet on whether or not the government would shoulder the additional cost.
As for the Naia Expressway, the proponent would be the San Miguel group, which by the way has been doing the engineering work, although from what I heard, its biggest worry would remain the monstrous traffic jams that the construction would cause.
Still, the project was only meant to connect the Manila international airport directly to the “Entertainment City” at the reclaimed area near Roxas Blvd., serving mainly the tourists patronizing the huge Las Vegas-style casino-hotels owned mainly by foreign investors.
You should be pleased that the administration has been quiet about the mass transport systems in the metropolis that, according to some Palace spin-doctors, the Aquino (Part II) administration has been espousing as its main solution to the traffic problem.
At one time, it is true, our leader BS has declared that he would have himself run over by LRT trains if his administration would fail to complete the LRT-1 extension project before the end of his term.
By the way, it took the cute administration of Gloriaetta more than five years to complete the short MRT extension between Monumento (Caloocan City) and West Ave. (Quezon City).
How the Aquino (Part II) administration could expect to complete the LRT-1 extension project in the next two years remains a puzzle in the business community, considering that the administration has not done even just the financial closing for the project.
Still, Transportation Undersecretary Rene Limcaoco reportedly expressed confidence the DOTC infrastructure projects in the pipeline would also “take off” during the term of our leader BS. Limcaoco has been the main guy in the controversial project to build a new modern terminal at the Cebu international airport. At one time, the DOTC moved to bar the San Miguel group from bidding for the P17-billion project, supposedly because San Miguel was part owner of Philippine Airlines.
The DOTC simply invented a new rule that airline stockholders could not be involved in airport projects because of conflict of interest.
Up to today, the project is still in the “prequalification” stage for the bidders. As we all know, it is this stage that magic happens in the bidding for any government projects.
