-
Pasig River port contract attracts lone P2.49B bid
-
Mega Lifters Cargo Handling Corp’s offer to manage the Pasig River port terminal was unchallenged when no rivals showed up at the opening of bids on April 25
-
Two other companies that earlier bought bid documents were a no-show
-
The bidding pushed through after the Manila Regional Trial Court denied a petition for temporary restraining order filed by Movers and Managers Corp.
Mega Lifters Cargo Handling Corp’s offered P2.49 billion to manage Pasig River port, the sole bid for the project.
Two other companies that earlier bought bid documents did not submit their bids or send their letter of withdrawal when the opening of bids got under way on April 25.
The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) announced during its livestreamed bid opening proceedings that the process pushed through after a Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) denied a petition for temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by Movers and Managers Corp. against opening of bids. PPA said it received the decision on April 21.
PPA acknowledged that while a motion for reconsideration has been filed with the Manila RTC and that there was a pending case involving the land area being leased to Movers and Managers, no TRO was issued by the time of opening of bid, hence the process proceeded as scheduled.
Movers and Managers is part of the Pasig Port Users Against PPA Tariff Increases, a group of stakeholders that earlier asked PPA to stop an impending rate hike at Pasig River port once a new operator wins the port management bid. The group said the Tier 3 port tariff would take effect once the winning bidder takes over, lifting dry bulk cargo levy by 949%.
“No amount of improved or additional services, if any at all, can support this unconscionable increase,” the group said. It added that raising rates at Pasig River port would cause port users to consider moving their operations to neighboring ports with similar rates as Pasig River port’s.
The group is instead proposing a tariff hike similar to the 24% granted in 2017 by PPA to Manila North Harbour Port Inc., implemented in three tranches of 8% annually for three years.
PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago stood his ground on implementation of Tier 3 rates, saying its impact would be minimal compared with other logistics costs.
READ: Tier 3 port tariff stays, says PPA
Management contract details
Mega Lifters’ technical and financial proposals are now up for post-evaluation.
The contract for Pasig River port covers management and operation of the cargo-handling, passenger, roll-on/roll-off (RoRo), and other port-related services at the port, PPA said.
The projects involve stevedoring services, Ro-Ro cargo services, bagging services, passenger terminal management, porterage, storage management, waste and shore reception facility management, water distribution services, weighbridge facility, and ancillary and other related services.
The minimum concession fee for the project was P2.487 billion, with a minimum concession fee of P165.787 million for the first year.
Bidding for the Pasig River port was conducted through an open competitive procedure using the non-discretionary pass/fail criterion as specified in PPA Administrative Order (AO) No. 12-2018, as amended.
AO 12-2018 provides guidelines for selecting and awarding contracts under PPA’s Port Terminal Management Regulatory Framework (PTMRF), which outlines new rules for terminal management contracts.
PTMRF, provided under AO 03-2016, seeks to provide higher-quality port service by promoting private sector participation. Under this framework, investments in ports are to be categorized into six tiers, ranging from a fully private concession to a fully PPA-managed port, for easier determination of the investment arrangements for a port.
Pasig River port falls under Tier 3, which means the contractor’s investments include above-ground fixtures and semi-fixtures, as well as mobile handling equipment.
According to bid documents, Pasig River port encompasses an area of 43,247.07 square meters. PPA noted that 1,194.05 sqm of the concession area is occupied by informal settlers.
The terminal management office of Pasig River, under the port management of PPA NCR-South, handled 848,960 metric tons of domestic cargo and 9,595 passengers in 2021.
PPA earlier also opened the bidding for the port terminal management contracts of other Tier 3 ports, namely Puerto Princesa, Ormoc, Tabaco, Legazpi, Zamboanga, Iligan, Ozamiz, Calapan, Tacloban, Nasipit, Matnog, Fort San Pedro, Pulupandan, Surigao, Masao, Tagbilaran, and Pagadian. PPA has already awarded the contracts for all these ports, except for Pagadian.
PPA also bid out recently the contract for the first Tier 2 port, Sasa Wharf in Davao.
Santiago earlier said PPA is privatizing operations of ports it manages. Including the previous ones already bid out, Santiago said the target is to bid out a total of 25 management contracts before the end of the current administration’s term middle of this year. – Roumina Pablo
