3 groups eye P50-B prison PPP project

FILE PHOTO

At least three Filipino companies actively involved in the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) program are keen on the regional prison facilities project, which aims to provide a new penitentiary amid the swelling number of inmates in Metro Manila.

PPP Center executive director Cosette Canilao said on Wednesday that San Miguel Corp. and Megawide Construction Corp. have already acquired bid documents for the P50.2-billion deal.

She added that the Consunji family behind construction and power conglomerate DMCI Holdings formally expressed its intention to buy bid documents the other day.

The Department of Justice’s prequalification, bids and awards committee (PBAC) on Wednesday held a conference for companies interested in bidding for the prison facility.

State counsel Rosario Elena Laborte-Cueva, PBAC member and spokesperson, said foreign companies could participate in the bidding since there were few local companies that have experience in building prison facilities. She said local companies could also partner with the foreign firms to bid for the project.

The project will be offered to bidders under a build-transfer-maintain scheme. The PPP project calls for the private sector to finance, design, build and maintain the facility for a period of 23 years.

The PBAC will evaluate the pre-qualification documents submitted by the prospective bidders on a “pass-fail” basis in accordance with the committee’s Instruction to Prospective Bidders, which include detailed rules and procedures for the preparation, submission and evaluation of the proposals.

Prospective bidders who meet the prequalification requirements will receive their bidding documents on May 29. A pre-bid conference will be held on June 15 to allow prequalified bidders to raise questions and issues regarding the project and bidding process.

The bids will be submitted as separate technical and financial proposals. The deadline for the submission is on Aug. 14, with the contact to be awarded and signed the following month.

Assuming that schedule is followed, the awarding of the project by September will pave the way for construction to begin in March 2016. Completion is set on March 2019.

The new prison facility will be constructed at a portion of the Fort Magsaysay military reservation within General Tinio town in southeastern Nueva Ecija, according to the Department of Justice, which is implementing the project.

The planned facility is expected to accommodate 26,880 inmates, including staff housing and administrative buildings, areas for rehabilitation (sports, work and religious activity), and will be installed with high security equipment, the PPP Center noted.

The project, which is likely the first of several PPP prison projects around the Philippines, aims to address the worsening congestion at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa and the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong, which the government plans to close down.