THE Aquino administration has finally admitted that its much-ballyhooed, centerpiece Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program, launched more than three years ago, would only be able to produce only five finished projects by the time President Aquino’s term ends in 2016.
That falls far short of the expectations raised by the program, which had promised to improve on the infrastructure-building record of the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), which PNoy has maligned at every opportunity, here and abroad.
The five projects that would see completion by mid-2016 are listed in a document distributed by the PPP Center during the Philippine Economic Briefing it conducted on Tuesday.
These five projects are apart from the 50 others “in the pipeline” that were described to be “in varying stages of the project cycle.” The five are two school projects worth P20.14 billion; the P1.72-billion Automatic Fare Collection System for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT 1) and Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT 3) systems; the P2.01-billion Daang Hari South Luzon Expressway link road; and the P15.52-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Expressway.
Like the proverbial mountain that it has represented itself to be, the Aquino administration, after laboring furiously for six years, can only bring forth a mouse. Such a lean accomplishment record certainly pales when compared to that of the Arroyo administration.
Why is this so, when PNoy had the biggest-ever discretionary spending power to beef up the country’s infrastructure network?
George T. Barcelon, chairman of the 40th Philippine Business Conference (PBC), set for October 22 to 24, hinted at the apparent causes in a statement. He urged the administration to “focus on infrastructure deliverables” during the remainder of its term, now less than two years.
Businessmen, Barcelon said, “are looking forward for [the] government to deliver the hard and soft infrastructure by focusing on the deliverables.” He added that “it should not be sidetracked by politics, the Priority Development Assistance Fund, the Disbursement Acceleration Program and the election coming in 2016.”
My translation of Barcelon’s statement is this: PNoy should stop his Noynoying already and buckle down to do some real work, for a change.
Through this year’s PBC, Barcelon said, businessmen are hoping that the government would take heed and pay more attention to the pressing issue of infrastructure to improve the competitiveness of the country’s domestic industries.
The country’s small and medium enterprises, which make up the majority of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, would like to see the government focusing its efforts to address issues on logistics, labor and power.
‘Sidetracked by political matters’
A PROMINENT businessman I talked to just the other day said, “The administration has been endlessly sidetracked by political matters that it now has so little time left to spend on concrete projects that would truly benefit the nation.”
Requesting anonymity, he pointed out that, under PNoy’s much-maligned predecessor, the LRT 1 system was completed in 2004. That facility made the so-called University Belt accessible to thousands of students from all over Metro Manila.
“The LRT 1 system upgraded its equipment and acquired an additional 12 air-conditioned four-car trains, increasing capacity from 27,000 to 40,000 passengers per hour,” he said.
And the LRT 1 closing the loop project finally interconnected its station at Monumento in Caloocan City to the MRT 3 terminal station at North Edsa in Quezon City, providing a seamless loop service to half-a-million train riders every day.
“Unfortunately, however, the common station that was to be shared by both lines today remains just a plan after more than four years, mired in the endless bickering under the PNoy administration.”
The businessman also cited the blame game being currently played by Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya and Filinvest Chairman Robert Sobrepeña, who represents MRT Holdings II, which owns MRT Corp.
Sobrepeña pointed to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) for the current MRT 3 mess.
He told the Senate committee, led by Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, that MRT 3 used to have a maintenance contract with Sumitomo Corp. of Japan. The contract guaranteed that all 20 trains of MRT 3 would be running at any given time under the principle of “single point of responsibility.”
Unfortunately, that contract was terminated by the DOTC in October 2012. That made MRT 3 lose its most important feature, Sobrepeña said.
In reply, Abaya claimed that he had to terminate the contract because Sumitomo was demanding an increase in its monthly maintenance fee, from $1.4 million to $2 million. “I couldn’t, in conscience, bear that we would be paying more, but the provider wouldn’t warranty such.”
The MRT 3 maintenance contract was subsequently awarded to Trams-CB&T Joint Venture and Global Inc. It is now solely responsible for MRT 3’s maintenance needs.
On the issue of the nightmarish congestion at Manila’s seaports, our critic said that if the problem drags on, it might affect the country’s credit standing, according to Moody’s.
Reduced imports, rising food prices
THIS is not farfetched. If our imports are reduced to a trickle, food prices would shoot up and reignite inflation, and industrial production would inevitably slow down. Our source said:
“Luckily for us, we already have the infrastructure to help decongest port traffic, thanks to the previous administration. To the north, the capacity of Subic Bay port was increased under GMA by an additional 600,000 twenty-foot equivalent units [TEU] yearly. And to the south, the Batangas port was expanded to accommodate Panamax and post-Panamax-size vessels, for a total of 401,000 TEU of cargo annually.
“Getting to either port is a breeze. GMA expanded the 84-kilometer North Luzon Expressway, cutting travel time to an hour. From there, one can connect to the 94-km Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway [completed under GMA] or to the 84-km Tarlac/Pangasinan/La Union Expressway, [which was started under her].
“Going south are the 20-km Southern Tagalog Arterial Road [STAR] to Batangas, the 25-km Cavite Expressway and the 37-km project to extend the Southern Luzon Expressway, including an 8-km connection to STAR that completes a seamless route from Manila to the Batangas port.”
Our businessman-critic, obviously a big fan of GMA, also cited the badly damaged runway of the Tacloban City airport. He described it as the latest blow to the country’s airport system, already stigmatized by the universal designation of Naia as the world’s worst airport.
And, yet, he said, the airport remains the neglected mess that it is because it is, after all, part of the territory of the opposition. “Meanwhile, the administration endlessly dithers over whether or not to build another international airport for Manila somewhere else.”
E-mail: omerta_bdc@yahoo.com.