SMC urges DPWH to resolve petty CALAX issues

MANILA, Philippines - Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) urged the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to immediately resolve the delaying tactics employed by other bidders for the P35.4- billion Cavite – Laguna Expressway project.

In a statement, Mark Dumol, president of SMC’s Private Infra Development Corp. (PIDC), said the DPWH should not be distracted by the small issues being raised by the three other bidders of the public private partnership (PPP) project.

Dumol issued the statement after the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) failed to resolve the issues raised by Malaysia’s Alloy MTD Philippines, Team “Orion” of conglomerate Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Group as well as MPCALA Holdings Inc. of infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC).

The three bidders questioned the compliance of the bid proposal submitted by SMC’s Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. last June 2 particularly on the validity of its bid security as well as the packaging and labelling of its proposal.

“Are they intimidated by our financial bid that they now choose to find the tiniest fault in the bid submission? Clearly, the government gets the best price if there are several bidders,” Dumol said.

He said the petty complaints of some bidders were understandable considering that SMC has always been known to give its full support to the government’s privatization efforts through its aggressive bids.

He cited the case of the P15 billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) expressway wherein the diversified conglomerate offered an upfront cash payment of P11 billion compared to the P350 million offer made by MPIC.

“SMC’s bold NAIA-X bid forced its competitors to sharpen their pencils, as evidenced by the more realistic and dynamic bids for the Mactan airport project and succeeding biddings,” he said.

Dumol is confident that the DPWH and the PPP Center would decide on the merits and would not be swayed by underhanded maneuvering because it has always espoused a policy of encouraging wider bid competition.

“The entity that submits the highest financial bid to the government wins,” Dumol said.

He reiterated that SMC’s Optimal Infrastructure is fully compliant with the bid requirements for the tollroad project as ANZ Bank has issued a certification that the company’s bid security is valid until Nov. 29 and not Nov. 25.

He believed the DPWH and the public will not buy the “bullying tactics and mind conditioning strategy” of MPCALA Holdings.