Phl PPP experience explained in Guam

MANILA, Philippines - Businessman Dr. Cezar T. Quiambao has explained before the Guam Chamber of Commerce the Philippines’ experience insofar as the Public-Private Partnership projects and how they have become “game changers” in the business landscape.

Quiambao, who spoke last March 26 at the Hilton Hotel’s Micronesia Ballroom, cited the evolution of PPP projects in the country starting with the Metro Manila Skyway, the country’s first elevated expressway,which was conceptualized during the administration of then President Fidel V. Ramos.

The Filipino businessman said that like other Filipinos ,who went to foreign lands for greener pasture, he answered “the clarion call” of Ramos for overseas-based Filipino professionals to go back to the country of their birth and make a difference.

He said that he left his comfort zone in Indonesia where he devised project financing for huge construction projects and from that experience structured the partnership via the PPP model between Indonesia’s leading infra firm, P.T. Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada, which partnered with the Philippine National Construction Corp., holder of the franchise for the South Luzon Expressway.

That skyway project led to the companion Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) project that led to the surge in business in Batangas. Also, the skyway is now the link to a huge P30 billion plus network of connector roads that would link the southern and northern provinces that would again prove a game changer in the country’s business landscape.

This “provided the intersection to an economic renaissance,” Quiambao told the Guam businessmen , as he bared too his participation in two other PPP projects, the LTO-IT project which resulted in the release of driver’s licenses in under 30 minutes from the old model of six months as well as the electronic titling of property titles which is a partnership with the Land Registration Administration.

“PPP has become the empowering force for government to undertake major projects, especially those needing massive funding,” Quiambao said, adding that PPP is an innovation in response to problems faced by the lack of infra projects.

Quiambao said that the â€œlogic behind a PPP is quite simple. PPP allows the private sector to do what it does best – running a business and realizing a reasonable amount of return commensurate with the risks involved. The government is thus freed from its budget funds, and such funds can be used for the delivery of basic services to the public.

 The Guam Chamber of Commerce, through its president Peter Sgro, asked Quiambao to talk about the country’s PPP in line with Guam’s efforts to craft its own PPP law as part of an economic roadmap for the US territory.