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MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Corp. said it will appeal the decision of the Transportation Department to disqualify the diversified conglomerate from the auction of the project involving the ticketing system for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) rail lines.
Speaking on the sidelines of Ginebra San Miguel Inc’s annual stockholders meeting on Thursday, May 9, San Miguel Corp president and COO Ramon Ang said they will file a motion for reconsideration after the Department of Transport and Communication (DOTC) disqualified their bid for the Automated Fare Collection System (AFCS) project.
“We will file an MR, a motion for reconsideration…within 7 days. But first we need to know the reason. The reason they gave was missing documents,” said Ang.
According to the DOTC, the conglomerate’s unit, San Miguel Transport Solutions, was disqualified because its project implementation and development plans did not include certain required components showing its ability to undertake the project.
San Miguel bought pre-qualification documents for the P1.72 billion project in April 2012. The PPP project is for the single contactless ticketing system for the MRT and LRT, two key rail transport systems in the capital Manila.
The MRT-LRT single ticket is expected to not only serve as a stored-value train ticket, but also as payment for bus rides and toll fees. It may also be used as a debit card and for electronic banking and shopping purposes.
5 qualified, 4 did not
On Wednesday, May 8, the DOTC announced that it had prequalified 5 firms for its AFCS project. These include the SM group, The AF Consortium (of Ayala and Pangilinan groups), The Comworks Inc., E-Trans Solutions JV Inc. (Gotianun group) and Megawide Suyen-Eurolink
“This means that we are getting closer to identifying who our private sector partner will be in bringing a modern commuting experience to the public,” the DOTC said.
Aside from San Miguel, 3 other companies failed to qualify for the project: the Lamco consortium, the MTD-PRLM consortium, and the Mega Lucky United consortium.
The DOTC said the Lamco consortium was disqualifed because its newly nominated consortium member, New San Jose Builders, Inc., failed to meet the project’s financial qualification requirement of P1 billion.
However, the documents provided during the submission deadline last April 12 showed that its net worth fell below the P 1-billion minimum. Additional documents submitted by Lamco after the deadline were not considered by the DOTC-LRTA Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), since this would have amounted to a bid modification.
In the case of Mega Lucky, there was no proof that its members have no unsatisfactory record, while other required basic information sheers of its members were not submitted.
The DOTC said MTD-PRLM’s submission lacked proof establishing the required experience of its nominated AFCS operator. Its Project Implementation Plan and Project Development Plan failed to show its ability to undertake the project due to missing components. – Rappler.com
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