MPIC, PNCC set to ink joint venture

MANILA, Philippines - Infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and state-run Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) will sign a joint venture agreement today for the construction of a P23-billion toll road that would connect the North and South Luzon expressways.

The NLEX-SLEX Connector Road Project would be implemented by the joint venture partners through Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), which operates NLEX. 

Under their joint venture, PNCC will get a 2.5-percent equity in the new project and a six percent share in gross revenues. 

MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan earlier said the company was willing to tie up with PNCC  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 earlier said. 

Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya earlier said he sees no legal challenges for the planned expressway as the project would be undertaken through a joint venture between MPTC and PNCC. 

Abaya said the DOTC, 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. 

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 road that would connect the North and South Luzon expressways would be subjected to a Swiss challenge. 

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.