13 PPP projects exempted from poll ban

A man works on a government project, a 300-meter flyover that will connect two main expressways in Manila in this file photo. AFP

THE GOVERNMENT has identified key public-private partnership (PPP) projects—mainly big-ticket railway, toll road and airport deals—to be exempted from the so-called ban on public works and infrastructure ahead of the national elections this May.

The 13 projects have a combined value of about P514 billion, information on the PPP Center’s website showed, and their exemption helps ensure that the bidding process will not be disrupted once the election ban kicks in from March 25 through May 8 this year.

The list was included in a Jan. 14 memorandum released by the Department of Transportation and Communications, which corners a significant slice of the PPP projects under offer.

Some of the large items listed are the P122.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike, the P170.7-billion North South Railway project (South Line), the P19-billion Davao Sasa Port Modernization project, and the P18.72-billion New Centennial Water Source- Kaliwa Dam project, the document showed.

Also included are the airport operations, maintenance and development contracts for the Bohol, Laguindingan, Davao, Bacolod and Iloilo gateways worth a combined P108.19 billion as well as the Light Rail Transit Line 2, which has no listed capital spending budget, and the regional prison facility in Nueva Ecija worth P50.18 billion.

Also listed was the P298-million Road Transport Information IT project and the P24.4-billion Bulacan Bulk Water Supply project, whose contract the government signed with conglomerate San Miguel Corp. last Friday.

In an earlier decision, the Commission on Elections said PPP projects were not covered by prohibitions stated in section 261 (v) and (w) of the Omnibus Election Code. The PPP Center had requested the exemption as the projects are funded by the private sector and not by the public’s money.

The Comelec, however, said that the exemption was limited to the 13 projects on the list, while giving several other recommendations in the process of bidding out the PPP deals during the election ban.

For example, it said the PPP Center should ensure that the projects “must never be used for any election propaganda.”

To prevent this, it said public notices of the projects must not contain the “name, logo, image, initials and any identifying symbol” linking the project to certain public officials “currently in the leadership of the implementing agencies.”

The projects, in accompanying public information postings, can only have the name or logo of the implementing agency and the private sector entity, or winning bidder, it noted.

The Comelec added that the ban still applies when public funds are released, such as when the services of an independent consultant would be tapped for a specific project during the covered period.