THE competitive challenge for the P18-billion Connector Road proposal of Metro Pacific Investment Corp. is expected to push through by the first quarter of 2015.
A fourth-quarter deadline for the said auction is not viable, conceded Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson, amid calls from the private sector to hasten the long-delayed implementation of the project.
“To schedule the Swiss challenge for the connector road within the year is not realistic. It might go about 90 days, or sometime in the first quarter,” he replied, when asked for updates on the proposal.
Sought for comment, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) President Ramon S. Fernandez expressed his group’s disappointment of the long process that his firm had to go through only to get back to square one after four long years.
“We are disappointed because that project is very much needed now, more specifically because of the traffic. We can’t finish it on schedule,” he said. “The port congestion that is happening now is affecting our economy.”
The group of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan submitted the expressway project to the public works agency as an unsolicited proposal in May 2010. It was duly approved by the highest planning body of the government in 2013.
Under the recommendation of Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya, the National Economic and Development Board (Neda) moved to amend the existing supplemental toll operations agreement of the firm to hasten the project’s mode of implementation.
Under the revised supplemental toll operations agreement, Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), the corporate vehicle for the implementation of the Connector Road, would connect the thoroughfare to the two-segment Harbor Link Project. This effectively eliminates the long process of placing the unsolicited offer under a competitive challenge.
MNTC is a joint venture between MPTC and state-run Philippine National Construction Corp., which holds the franchise for both the North and South Luzon Expressways.
But the Toll Regulatory Board, acting to a complaint filed by a private citizen, recommended that the deal be subject to a Swiss challenge, following the opinion of the justice department on the matter.
Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima, in a 41-page opinion, emphasized the need for the project to be reverted back to an unsolicited proposal and undergo a competitive challenge, declaring the franchise extension method illegal.
This effectively delayed the completion of the 8-kilometer road that will link the North and South Luzon Expressways by at least a year. The expressway was expected to be completed by the time President Aquino steps down from office in 2016.
A Swiss challenge normally takes about three to 10 months from the publication of the invitation to bid for the unsolicited proposal. The original proponent has the right to match the highest bid garnered during the process.
“We are going back to Neda for reconfirmation,” Singson noted.
The Connector Road or Segment 10.2, is an 8-km mainline road that will run from C-3 Road in Caloocan to Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Santa Mesa, Manila. It will also have 2.6-km port area spur road that will run from C-2 Road to R10 in Tondo, Manila.
The expressway is expected to facilitate the seamless exchange of goods and services between the two ends of the country’s capital. This would aid truck operators and freight services firms to pickup shipped goods from the ports in Manila and deliver them to markets.