SMC, Lamco groups pay appeal fee for MRT-LRT ticket project

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is set to look into the appeal filed by diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Lamco Consortium that were disqualified from the bidding of the P1.72 billion automated and contactless single ticketing system for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT).

Michael Arthur Sagcal, spokesperson of DOTC, said SMC and Lamco paid the appeal fee amounting to P8.6 million each as stated under the implementing rules and regulations of the Build Operate Transfer (BOT) law.

The non-refundable appeal fee is equivalent to 0.5 percent of the total project cost as provided under the BOT law.

Sagcal said Lamco paid the appeal fee last May 27 while SMC settled the amount last May 28.

The DOTC has issued Special Bid Bulletin 05-2013 giving disqualified bidders of the Automated Fare Collection System (AFCS) project 15 days from the receipt of the notice of disqualification that were issued last May 7 to file an appeal and pay the non-refundable fee of P8.6 million.

Another losing bidder, the MTD-PRLM consortium, failed to pay the appeal fee. The Mega Lucky United Consortium was also disqualified by the DOTC.

SMC submitted qualification documents to the DOTC last April 12 through San Miguel Transport Solutions Consortium composed of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc., Catchweight Holdings Inc., Deltacrest Holdings Inc., and Allcard Plastics Philippines Inc. to bid for the project. Its partners include Petron Corp., Philippine National Bank, Singapore Technologies Electronics Ltd., Korea Railroad Corp., Korail Networks Co. Ltd., and Vix Technology (East Asia) Ltd.

The Lamco consortium is led by Lamco Paper Products Co. Inc., New San Jose Builders Inc., Land Bank of the Philippines, NEC Philippines Inc., Busan Transit Corp., and Samco FA Co Ltd.

On the other hand, the MTD-PRLM consortium is led by MTD Capital Bhd of Malaysia, Puregold Realty Leasing and Management Inc. businessman Lucio Co while its partners include PureGold Priceclub Inc., Transit Link Pte Ltd., and Maybank of Malaysia.

The DOTC earlier said in a statement that SMC’s Project Implementation Plan and Project Development Plan did not include certain required components while the net worth of the nominated consortium member of the Lamco Group – New San Jose Builders — to meet the financial qualification requirement fell below the required P1 billion.