Not one of the three pre-qualified bidders for the P123-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project (LLEDP) submitted a proposal, compelling the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to declare a bid failure.
This was confirmed by DPWH director for PPP (public-private partnership) service Ariel Angeles who said March 28, the bid submission date, came and went without a bid from San Miguel Holdings Corp. and consortiums Alloy-PAVI-Hanshin LLEDP Consortium and Team Trident.
Alloy-PAVI-Hanshin LLEDP Consortium is composed of three partners: Alloy MTD Capital BHD, Prime Asset Ventures Inc., and Hanshin Engineering Constructions.
Team Trident consists of Trident Infrastructure and Development Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., Ayala Land Inc., Megaworld Corp., and SM Prime Holdings Inc.
The bidders cited the lack of viability and unresolved issues surrounding the project as reasons for not participating.
“With due respect, we strongly believe the bidding process is (an) illegal and unenforceable transaction unless there is a signed presidential proclamation and signed tripartite agreement between PRA (Philippine Reclamation Authority)/LLDA (Laguna Lake Development Authority)/DPWH prior to the bidding,” Isaac David, Alloy Pavi Hanshin LLEDP Consortium’s authorized representative, told DPWH in a letter.
He said the bidding should be deferred until a new administration takes over by middle of the year to ensure transparency and fairness.
Team Trident spokesperson Roman Azanza III, in a statement, explained that “faced with the decision to bid on the country’s largest and most complex PPP to date, Team Trident believes that key risks have not been resolved at this time; consequently, Team Trident made the prudent decision to not submit a bid.”
Azanza added the team “acknowledges the extensive efforts that the DPWH, LLDA, our partners and advisers have put into this landmark project and regrets that no satisfactory solutions could be arrived at in time for today’s bid deadline.”
SMHC’s Ramon Ang, for his part, said: “The government will have to re-examine its assumptions and re-design a mutually beneficial contractual structure best suited for a deal as large and complex as this one, given its potential to create opportunities that will generate the greatest benefit to a lot of people.”
Bid submission has been delayed several times since July last year. In the latest postponement, DPWH moved the bid submission deadline to March 28 to give bidders more time to prepare and “to make the necessary modifications to the contract to address certain foreseen risks.”
Presidential assist
The failure in bidding comes even after President Benigno Aquino III signed an executive order creating an inter-agency technical committee (IATC) to iron out issues and facilitate implementation of LLEDP.
Aquino on March 22 signed Executive Order (EO) No. 202-2016 creating the IATC, to be composed of technical representatives from DPWH, LLDA, PRA, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The National Economic and Development Board, chaired by Aquino, approved the LLEDP as a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme governed by the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law. The PPP project is to be undertaken by DPWH as the implementing agency and the LLDA as the cooperating agency, supported by the PRA.
Under EO 202-2016, the IATC will assist the DPWH and LLDA in seeing through the LLEDP and in resolving issues arising from its implementation.
The committee must also ensure all aspects of the LLEDP, including relocation of affected residents, waste management, reclamation, environmental protection, property development, and construction, are consistent with requirements of all applicable laws.
Aquino also ordered the DENR to perform all actions needed to reclassify portions of the land to be reclaimed as alienable and disposable land of the public domain. The project entails reclamation of 700 hectares in the Taguig-Muntinlupa area.
The LLEDP is envisioned to provide a high-standard highway-cum-dike that will facilitate traffic flow and mitigate flooding in the western coastal communities along Laguna Lake, from Bicutan/Taguig in Metro Manila through to Calamba and Los Baños in Laguna.
The expressway is intended to relieve the heavily travelled Bicutan-Calamba corridor (SLEX and Manila South Road) and serve as an alternate thoroughfare to the congested area of the National Highway from Calamba to Los Baños.
The proposed expressway will be used to integrate a flood control system so as to protect the flood-prone areas located along the shoreline of Laguna Lake.
It is expected to provide economic benefits including savings in vehicle operating costs, reduction in passenger time, reduction in flood damages, increase in land productivity in existing communities due to flood protection, and rise in land productivity in the reclamation area.
The winning bidder will finance, design, construct, operate, and maintain the flood control dike and expressway toll roads during the concession period of 37 years.
The LLEDP is one of the priority PPP projects of DPWH and is exempt from the construction ban during the election period.
