3 groups prequalify for Laguna Lake PPP

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Groups led by San Miguel Corp., Malaysia’s AlloyMTD Group and a “super consortium” comprised of the Ayala, Aboitiz, SM and Megaworld groups were declared qualified to bid for the massive Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike project, a senior government official confirmed Monday.

Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson told the Inquirer that a fourth group seeking qualification, known as the Rainbow Consortium comprised of Filipino, Korean and Indonesian players, was disqualified for failing to meet the public private partnership (PPP) deal’s requirements.

The Rainbow consortium has the option to appeal the decision, an official of the Department of Public Works and Highways said.

The qualification process is meant to determine which groups would be allowed to submit actual offers. The deadline for this is on July 6, 2015, and the department has not yet indicated any plan to allow an extension despite the prequalification process being postponed several times.

The three consortiums are vying for one of the more complex PPP deals rolled out since President Aquino launched his cornerstone infrastructure program in 2010.

The Laguna Lakeshore deal is tagged to have a development cost of P122.8 billion—about double the amount for the last biggest PPP project, the P65-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite extension, won last year by an Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.-backed partnership.

It has three major components: A 47-kilometer tollroad, a flood control dike and a 700-hectare land reclamation project in Laguna Lake near Taguig and Muntinlupa. Previous interviews with prospective bidders showed that they were keen on the tollroad and land reclamation aspects.

Project documents from the DPWH showed that the expressway would link Taguig in Metro Manila and Los Baños, Laguna. The land reclamation part, as initially envision, would comprise a total of seven 100-hectare islands in Laguna Lake about 150 meters away from the shoreline near Taguig, Parañaque and Muntinlupa.

Initial perspectives showed the tollroad would run on top of the flood control dike, which aims to mitigate flooding in the western coastal communities along Laguna Lake. The DPWH described the flood control dike as urgent given Metro Manila’s vulnerability to powerful storms as it cited Tropical Storm “Ondoy” in 2009.

The three qualified consortiums are backed by some of the biggest conglomerates in the Philippines and abroad. San Miguel, which operates tollroads in Southern Metro Manila and nearby provinces, is bidding without major partners and is using unit San Miguel Holdings Corp.

Trident Infrastructure and Development Corp., or Team Trident, is comprised of Ayala Land Inc., SM Prime Holdings Inc., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and Megaworld Corp. The MTD group is formally called Alloy Pavi Hanshin LLEDP Consortium and its members include South Korea’s Hanshin and the family of former senator Manuel Villar Jr.