Gov’t changes rules on Cavite-Laguna rebidding

MANILA, Philippines – Bidders of the Cavite-Laguna expressway (CALAX) project will undergo a revamped procurement process after government said it learned its lessons from a previous botched bidding.

To “expedite the process,” parties will be subjected to a single-step bidding – where all their pre-qualification documents, technical, and financial proposals would be simultaneously received and read in one day, according to Cosette Canilao, executive director of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center.

“It will most likely be in February [2-15],” said Canilao.

ICC approved

The project’s bidding process is one of the terms approved by the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) on Monday night, December 22, she said.

Part of the approved terms is its new floor price at P20.1 billion ($449.72 million*), which is the same as the submitted bid of San Miguel Corporation’s (SMC) Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc.

The previous bidding involved two stages, where the SMC subsidiary faced disqualification due to a non-compliant bid security, which supposedly made another bidder, Team Orion, the winner of the CALAX project

Why the project had to be rebidded

Disqualifying the SMC unit made Team Orion, the 50-50 joint venture between Ayala’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Inc. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures, the highest bidder at P11.66 billion ($260.88 million).

But SMC said its unit was fully compliant with the bid requirements for the toll road project as ANZ bank issued a certification that the company’s bid security was valid until November 29.

Its ANZ-issued bid security check indicated a validity of until November 25, 4 days short of the required 180-day requirement.

San Miguel brought the case to the Office of the President, which later on ruled in favor of the conglomerate and offered a rebidding.

Ayala-Aboitiz backs down

This time, Team Orion will no longer participate in the rebidding after it expressed disappointment over Malacañang’s decision.

Fund managers and think-tanks have said that rebidding the expressway project could derail the momentum of the Aquino administration’s PPP program.

The CALAX proejct is part of the 9 PPP projects eyed to be rolled out in 2015, said Canilao. These include the Davao Sasa Port Modernization Project, Regional Prison Facilities through PPP Project, NLEX-SLEx Connector Road, Motor Vehicle Inspection System Project, Civil Registry System-IT Project, Makati-Pasay-Taguig Mass Transit SYstem Loop Project, North-South Railway Project, and the Tanauan City Public Market Redevelopment Project.

The combined estimated cost of the project is P707.778 billion ($15.84 billion). – Rappler.com

*$1=P44.69