No rule change in PPP infra projects

Published on Tuesday, 27 November 2012 21:06

Written by Lenie Lectura / Reporter

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya has assured the private sector there would be no changing of rules in implementing and fast-tracking the multibillion-peso transport infrastructure projects under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program of the government.

Abaya said on Tuesday that when he assumed the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) leadership, a system has been in place there and he intends to continue implementing projects prepared by a team under his predecessor and now Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II.

“I’m pretty confident that he [Roxas] has done the whole work, a system has been set up, there is an ‘assembly line’ at the DOTC, and for my part, I will just push things out, not to reassess what he has done, not to restudy them,” he added.

Abaya said he was also heeding Roxas’s advice “to inject a culture of integrity and fair play” into the department.

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“We have conducted open and transparent biddings in full view of the public, every step of the way is open to media coverage.  The DOTC has published more than 20 full-page ads of all our projects that are up for bidding and more will be put out before the year ends,” he added.

Among the transportation department’s PPP projects are the P60-billion Light Rail Transit (LRT) 1 Cavite Extension, the biggest of them all to be contested by four conglomerates in a bidding scheduled in January next year; the Automatic Fare Collection System and Mactan-Cebu International Airport Passenger Terminal Building, with both being up for submission to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda); the enhanced Operations and Maintenance (O&M) contract of the new Bohol Airport Development and the Laguindingan (Misamis Oriental) Airport; the O&M of the Puerto Princesa Airport and LRT Line 2; and the Integrated Transport System project. 

Aside from these PPP projects, Abaya said his team is meeting with the Neda to propose the concept of the bus rapid- transit (BRT) system for Metro Manila.

He added that the BRT system, which is being studied for implementation in Cebu, would be more useful here in Metro Manila because of scarcity of roads in the country’s premier region.