MPIC open to joint venture with PNCC

MANILA, Philippines - Infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) headed by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan is open to the idea of entering into a joint venture with the state-run Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) for a P23-billion tollroad that would connect the North and South Luzon expressways.

Pangilinan, who is chairman of MPIC, said in an interview with reporters that the conglomerate is willing to tie up with the government in order to start the construction of the NLEX-SLEX Connector road project

“If that’s the government’s desire, we will follow. We’re prepared to enter into some joint venture framework with PNCC so we could begin construction and complete the connector. We have no problem with that,” Pangilinan said.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya earlier said the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) sees no legal challenges for the planned expressway as the project would be undertaken through a joint venture between MPIC’s Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) and PNCC.

Abaya said theDOTC, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Finance (DOF), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to expand the supplemental toll operations agreement (STOA) between PNCC and MPTC to cover the connector road project.

Via the joint venture, the DOTC chief said there is no need for a Swiss challenge as the PNCC holds the franchise for both NLEX and SLEX.

The DOTC wants the construction of the connector roads to start early next year so that this infrastructure would be completed in time for the Leaders Meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) which the Philippines would be hosting in 2015.

As early as April, officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said the unsolicited proposal of MPTC for the P23 billion connector road would be subjected to a Swiss challenge.

Swiss challenge provides that the DPWH would invite other interested individuals or corporations to come up with “better cost and toll rates” for the project.

Both MPTC and Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp. of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) should have a common area spanning five kilometers from Quirino in Manila up to Nagtahan in Sta. Mesa in Manila crossing the Pasig River.

President Aquino earlier decided to let both MPTC and SMC to build their own connector roads connecting Makati City where the SLEX ends to Caloocan and Balintawak where NLEX starts to be completed by 2015.

Linking NLEx and SLEx has been in the pipeline since 2010, when MPTC submitted an unsolicited proposal to build a 13.4-kilometer, four-lane elevated road connecting the two over the railway from Makati to Caloocan.

On the other hand, SMC’s CMMTC is spending P25.4 billion to construct a 14-kilometer six-lane tollway that will have exits in Quirino, Manila and Plaza Dilao, Aurora Boulevard, E. Rodriguez Ave., Quezon Boulevard, Sgt. Rivera, and Balintawak in Quezon City.