The Aquino administration should defer the bidding on the P15-billion management contract for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 1 and Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 3 systems until after a law creating a new commission with oversight powers over government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) is enacted, administration Sen. Ralph Recto said over the weekend.
Recto said the GOCC Reform Law is expected to be in place by the time the MRT-LRT contract is submitted for its scheduled bidding on July 11.
“As the enactment of the GOCC law appears very imminent, it would be prudent for the DOTC [Department of Transportation and Communications] to defer the bidding of the MRT-LRT and wait until the GOCC Commission goes to work and gives their thumbs up,” Recto, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises and bill co-author, said.
Meanwhile, 15 local and foreign firms are sure to join the July 11 auction for the operation and management (O&M) contract for the LRT Line 1 and the MRT Line 3.
As of Friday, the local firms that purchased the bid documents worth P500,000 are Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp. (MPLRC), Ayala Corp., Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc., Romero’s Ecorail Transport Services Inc., Abratique & Associates Phil. Inc., DM Consunji Inc.; Jorgman Planning and Development Corp.; and Kempal United Corp.
The foreign firms are Autre Porte Technique Global Inc.; England’s Serco Group Plc.; Marubeni Corp.; Sumitomo Corp.; Mitsubishi Corp., Spain’s Construcciones Y Auxiliar de Ferrocarilles SA; and Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA.
MPLRC is a subsidiary of the Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investment Corp. Optimal Infrastructure, meanwhile, is 99.9-percent owned by San Miguel Holdings Corp.
The deadline to purchase the bid documents is one day before the submission of bids. Since the submission deadline is a Monday, July 11, the last chance to buy the bid documents would be Friday, July 8.
In a statement, Recto pointed out that among the powers of the proposed Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) is to review the operations of various government corporations to determine if they should be abolished or privatized, subject to the approval of the President.
He added that the commission shall also be empowered to review the performance of the GOCCs and professionalize memberships in the GOCC boards.
“The government should allow the GCG a first crack at the MRT-LRT privatization plan under its Private-Public Partnership (PPP) Program via a thorough scrutiny,” Recto said. “This PPP project should not go to market while the GOCC probers are setting up camp.”
He noted that the final version of the GCG bill was already approved by a bicameral-conference committee and is expected to be ratified by Congress this week, after which it would be submitted to President Aquino for signing into law, so it could take effect by mid-June.
This auction is the first project under the Aquino administration’s PPP Program.
According to Recto, “the privatization of the MRT-LRT would be the maiden ‘CSI’ case of the GOCC probers and a litmus test to the “Daang Matuwid” program of the Aquino administration.” --Butch Fernandez, Lenie Lectura
