Gov’t poised to award P35.4-B Calax contract

The government may award the P35.4-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway public private partnership deal next week after completing its evaluation of three financial offers, topped by that of the Ayala and Aboitiz Groups, a government official said Friday.

PPP Center executive director Cosette Canilao said in a text message that the financial review would not be completed this week and would likely run “until next week.”

Canilao, a nonvoting member of the bids and awards committee of the Department of Public Works and Highways, did not elaborate on discussions behind the Cavite-Laguna Expressway project.

It drew four bidders although San Miguel Corp. was later disqualified for a deficient bid security and its financial offer was not opened last June 13.

SMC said it would pursue legal alternatives so that its offer, which turned to be the highest at P20.11 billion, would be considered.

SMC and Indonesia’s Citra Group operate South Luzon Expressway, which connects with Cavite-Laguna Expressway.

An SMC spokesperson said the company was still finalizing its position on the evaluation of the Calax offers, without elaborating.

During the opening of financial proposals, Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Land Inc.’s Team Orion offered the highest bid at P11.659 billion, making it the group most likely to bag the coveted project.

The two other bidders were MPCALA Holdings of the group of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan and MTD Capital of Malaysia, the only foreign group.

MPCALA Holdings offered P11.33 billion while MTD offered P922 million, their bid submissions showed.

Cavite-Laguna Expressway involves the financing, design and construction, as well as operation and maintenance of the four-lane expressway that will connect the Manila-Cavite Expressway (Cavitex) and SLEx.

The government has so far awarded seven PPP projects.

These include two toll roads, the Daang-Hari SLEx Link, won by Ayala Corp., and Naia Expressway, which was bagged by San Miguel.

It also rolled out two school infrastructure projects and the modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center, bagged by Megawide Construction Corp. and the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, won by a tandem between Megawide and India’s GMR Infrastructure.

For railways, the automated fare collection system for Metro Manila’s railways was won by the consortium of Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific, which is led by Pangilinan.