Purisima welcomes appointment of Roxas

MANILA, Philippines - Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima welcomed the appointment of Mar Roxas II as the country’s new Transportation Secretary, saying that this bodes well for the Aquino administration’s public-private partnership (PPP) program.

“I’m very happy that he is on board. The PPP (program) is now in better hands,” the Finance chief said.

He stressed that while former Transportation Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus did “a lot of work” for the PPP program, Roxas would likely do better.

“Given the stature of Secretary Roxas, I know we’re in much better hands,” Purisima noted.

He also said that the government is still on track to launching 10 PPP projects this year on the back of criticisms that the program has not taken off.

He said that because there is a focus on solicited projects, it is taking time because the government is doing feasibility studies.

He said that in some cases, the studies have been done but need to be updated.

Purisima assured that by the time President Benigno Aquino III gives his State of the Nation Address (SONA), the projects will be on stream already.

“By the end of the year, I think the 10 projects would have been started already,” he said.

The first project is the operation and maintenance contract for MRT 3 and LRT 1.

According to the Department of Transportation and Communications, the O&M runs for four years and will cover the 37.16-kilometer long rail mass transit system, which runs from Monument in Caloocan to Taft Avenue in Pasay.

The PPP, considered as the Aquino administration’s centerpiece economic program, aims to tap private sector participation in 80 large-scale infrastructure projects worth P740 billion that will be undertaken from 2011 and beyond.

Under the PPP scheme, the government would be tapping the help of the private sector to fund the different projects.

Aside from the O&M contract of the MRT-3 and LRT-1, the five initial projects under the PPP program are the P1.6-billion Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) Link Road Project; the P10.59-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Expressway Phase II Project; and the ambitious P21-billion North Luzon Expressway-SLEX Connector Project.