Airport PPP bid submission moved to March 28

THE DEPARTMENT of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) confirmed the final bid submission deadline for a public- private partnership (PPP) project involving the auction of provincial airport contracts.

A bid memorandum dated Feb. 26, 2016, showed that the final bid submission date was set on March 28 this year.

The PPP is for the operation and maintenance as well as development contracts for the Bacolod-Silay, Iloilo, Davao, Laguindingan and New Bohol air gateways valued at a combined P108 billion. The DOTC had announced that the earlier-set Feb. 29 deadline would not be met pending the issuance of the final concession agreement.

This is the second airport-focused PPP since the P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport operation-maintenance and expansion contract was successfully auctioned off in 2014.

The provincial airport PPPs are among those that the DOTC is hoping to bid out and award before President Aquino steps down in June this year.

The bidding process for certain deals, including the provincial airports contracts, can continue despite an election ban that runs from March 25 through May 8 this year because the Commission on Elections decided that PPP projects are 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.

An initial exemption list of 13 PPP deals under procurement, with a combined project value of more than P500 billion, was identified by the Comelec.

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 Centennal Water Source- Kaliwa Dam project.

Also included are 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.

The March 28 bid submission deadline for the provincial airports is open to the five groups that were earlier pre-qualified by the DOTC.