Calax rebid seen drawing more offers

The Department of Public Works and Highways said it received early expressions of interest for the controversial Cavite Laguna Expressway public private partnership (PPP) rebidding, a government official said on Friday.

Ariel Angeles, head of PPP Service of DPWH, told reporters that the department aimed to open the second Calax auction to all interested groups, apart from the original four bidders.

The special bids and awards committee of the DPWH, however, has yet to come up with a final resolution as it is still confirming that the Ayala-Aboitiz consortium known as Team Orion will not appeal President Aquino’s decision to rebid.

“There are still a lot of issues to discuss,” Angeles said. He said his office had received initial inquiries on a Calax rebid from a Singaporean group, which he did not name, and the Datem Consortium.

The original four bidders were the Ayala-Aboitiz Group, Malaysia’s AlloyMTD Group, a unit of Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and San Miguel Corp., which was disqualified due to a typo error in its submission. The disqualification was, however, reversed by President Aquino in a Nov. 19 decision.

In a statement last week, Team Orion, which was the front runner in the last bidding given SMC’s disqualification, said it was disappointed by President Aquino’s decision but it noted that “it will not stand in the way of the Calax rebid.”

Angeles said other issues discussed was the general timeline for the rebidding of the P35.4-billion, 45-kilometer expressway deal.

Officials said the plan was to rebid the Calax deal sometime in May 2015 at the latest.

As earlier reported, the DPWH is discussing the likelihood of setting the floor price based on SMC’s P20.1- billion offer, which would have been the highest bid had it not been disqualified by the department. Team Orion offered P11.66 billion for Calax, the highest qualified bid, in June.

San Miguel president Ramon Ang earlier said his group would participate in a Calax rebid while the Ayala group said it was unlikely to participate. Metro Pacific chair Manuel V. Pangilinan said late Thursday that his group would wait for the new bidding terms before deciding on joining.