SCTEx up for Swiss challenge? Unfair says MVP group

MANILA, Philippines – It is “grossly unfair” and “without legal basis.”

This is how Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) described the government’s plan to bid out the contract to operate and maintain the 94-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx).

In a letter to state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority, the group strongly opposed Malacañang’s proposal to call for a Swiss challenge.

“We were told that the President already liked our third improvement (of the contract), but he wants to subject it to a Swiss challenge,” said Ramoncito Fernandez, president of MPIC unit Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC).

Under a Swiss challenge, other qualified groups may submit counter-offers that the proponent of the original offer has the right to match.

MPTC, through unit Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC), won and signed the contract to operate and maintain SCTEx in 2010 under the administration of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

However, the contract, which is valid until 2043, was placed under review by the Aquino administration over concerns on revenue-sharing.

“We have been waiting for years already, so we want to execute the contract. We have already improved thrice and improving it further,” Fernandez said.

MPTC revised the terms of its original contract, raising the guaranteed revenue share of government to P90 billion from P64 billion, and improving cash flow and cost sharing to 50-50. The company also extended the period within which it will subsidize payment of the government’s existing loan for the construction of SCTEx. – Rappler.com