Companies interested in the P35.42-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) project have until May 19 to submit their bids for the controversial rebidding of the contract, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said on Friday.
In an invitation to bid, Public Works Undersecretary Rafael C. Yabut said the auction will be conducted via a single-stage tender. This means interested parties will submit their qualification documents and technical and financial proposals collectively.
“We will open the financial proposals first to check which bid carried the highest premium. Then we’ll open the highest bidder’s technical proposal, and if the offer passes the review, then we’ll award,” Yabut said in the vernacular.
Should the highest bidder’s technical bid fail the evaluation, then the department will proceed to the second highest bidder.
A nonrefundable fee of P100,000 will be charged to companies for the bid documents, which will be available from March 10 to May 18.
The tender process, as earlier reported, will require bidders to place offers higher than the P20.1 billion in premium supposedly proposed by San Miguel Corp.
To recall, the results of the initial auction for the deal was declared void by President Aquino, after his uncle’s firm sought for a reconsideration of its multibillion-peso bid.
It took the government four months to decide on the petition of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. to reject the offer of Team Orion of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. Team Orion emerged as the first auction’s top bidder, with a premium bid of P11.33 billion.
Business groups, led by the Makati Business Club (MBC), earlier warned President Aquino that his decision to void the initial auction’s results will cast his Public-Private Partnership Program in a bad light.
But in a recent interview with the BusinessMirror, MBC Executive Director Peter Angelo B. Perfecto said the private sector is still confident that the government will roll out more deals without such similar issues as the Calax.
Perfecto said investors will continue to support the government’s cornerstone infrastructure program as long as there will be no repeat of Malacañang’s controversial decision on the rebidding of the 47-kilometer expressway.
The government expects to receive higher investor participation in the second auction for the deal. But the four original bidders are currently at loggerheads over their participation in the fresh tender.
Optimal, which is chaired by businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., is firm in its decision to rebid for the project.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp., (MPIC) which was the second top bidder during the original auction, is still weighing the economic and political implications of the original auction. The company, however, renewed its bid bond, signifying its intention to join the fresh tender.
“We will wait for the terms of reference and reevaluate our position,” Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) president Ramoncito S. Fernandez said in a phone interview on Friday.
Meanwhile, Team Orion and MTD Philippines Inc. said they are already disinterested in the deal.
“Team Orion is not going to participate in this unprecedented rebid,” Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. First Vice President Roman Anthony V. Azanza III said.
“It’s not viable anymore,” MTD Philippines President Isaac S. David said via phone.
The project is a 47-km thoroughfare that will link the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway to spur trade and socieconomic activities in Calabarzon. The private partner will take on the financing, design, construction, and operation and maintenance of the entire four-lane toll road.
The project will also include the construction of centralized toll plazas, a toll-collection system, viaducts and bridges.