Gov’t ready to award P2.5-B ITS-Southwest deal

THE GOVERNMENT is making progress with its  public-private partnership program as it intends to award the P2.5-billion Integrated Transport System-Southwest project in the next few days apart from rolling out  the P35.4-billion Cavite Laguna Expressway rebid process later this month or by February.
The two projects have faced various delays and putting them on track to completion will translate to added benefits for Filipinos in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
The ITS-Southwest project, in particular, is nearing its award after financial bids were opened last week by the Department of Transportation and Communications.
MWM Terminals, led by Megawide Construction Corp., is the frontrunner for the ITS-Southwest project after it offered that government pay it an annual fee of P100 million over the project’s 35-year concession period.
This was considered the best offer given that its sole rival, Filinvest Land, had offered that government pay it P650 million a year.
No winner has been formally announced although the DOTC is planning to do this within the week, Transportation Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla said in a text message.
“We hope to do that (award) this coming week,” Lotilla said. The ITS Southwest will be the ninth project to be awarded under the Aquino administration’s PPP Program.
The ITS is meant to create intermodal hubs where provincial buses will disembark passengers to transfer to other in-city modes of transport such as elevated railways, city buses and UV Express vans.
The move was aimed at easing congestion within Metro Manila.
The ITS Southwest project will be built within a site area of 4.6 hectares near the Manila-Cavite Expressway.  Two other ITS PPP projects are set to rise, the ITS-South, located near the Food Terminal Inc. compound in Taguig and the ITS-North, likely in Quezon City.
For Calax, PPP Center executive director Cosette Canilao told reporters that a National Economic and Development Authority board meeting was set “at the end of the month” partly to approve the new terms of the 45-kilometer tollroad deal.
The new terms are expected to include the P20.1-billion “floor price,” which will come on top of the construction cost.
She noted that once approved by the Neda board, which is chaired by President Aquino, it would take four more months before the bid submission, or by June this year.
The P20.1-billion floor price was placed to match the offer of San Miguel Corp., which was disqualified by the Department of Public Works and Highways’ bids and awards committee last June because of a typo error.
The disqualification was eventually reversed by President Aquino after SMC filed an appeal.
Apart from SMC, the three other original bidders are the tandem between Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Land Inc., which was the original frontrunner although its bid was P8.4 billion short of SMC’s offer, a unit of Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Malaysia’s AlloyMTD Group.
Malacañang ordered a rebid because of the wide gap between the qualified frontrunner and SMC, saying the difference could pay for important infrastructure developments and socialized housing.