MANILA, Philippines - Prospective bidders for the operation and maintenance of the Light Rail Transit line 2 (LRT-2) yesterday asked the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to speed up the turnover of the mass transit system to the winning concessionaire before President Aquino steps down in June 2016.
Noel Kintanar, executive vice president of Ayala Corp.’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Inc., yesterday asked the DOTC and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) during the pre-bid conference at the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to hasten the turnover of the system to the winning bidder so it would not be affected by the political exercise in 2016.
Kintanar pointed out that the winning concessionaire for the project could be affected by an inherent risk during the political transition when President Aquino steps down in June 2016.
“I think it is in second semester 2016 when the asset will be turned over. Do you see any inherent risk that the concessionaire will have to go through a political transition and we end up with something that we doesn’t exactly desire,” he asked.
Kintanar, who is representing the Light Rail Manila Consortium (LRMC) which is a partnership with infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), urged the DOTC and LRTA to fast track the assets of the LRT-2 to the winning concessionaire before the May 2016 presidential elections.
“The request could be get everything done before the next elections. It is just the turnover process so we may fast track it,” he added.
LRMC is part of the six companies that bought bid documents for the O&M public private partnership (PPP) project for LRT-2. Other firms include GT Capital Holdings of taipan George SK Ty, diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp., Marubeni Corp. of Japan, RATP Development, and DMCI Holdings Inc.
Representatives of Globalvia Inversioner SAU of Spain, listed Aboitiz Equity Ventures, and MTR Hong Kong were present during the pre-bid conference.
Interested bidders have until Nov. 20 to submit their prequalification documents and prequalified bidders would be notified on Dec. 20.
The DOTC added that prequalified bidders have until May or June next year to submit their bids followed by the issuance of the Notice of Award in June or July ad the signing of the concession agreement in August or September next year.
The assets of LRT-2 would be turned over to the bidder that submits the lowest O&M fee one year after the signing of the concession contract.
PPP Center executive director Cosette Canilao said the government would look into the request and would find ways to speed up the turn over of the assets of LRT-2 to the winning bidder.
“We will review and go back if it’s doable. The handover can be shortened may be fourth quarter of 2015 or first quarter of 2016,” Canilao said.