Ayala-Aboitiz tandem disappointed over Palace decision to rebid CALAX

MANILA, Philippines - The tandem of conglomerate Ayala Corp. and listed Aboitiz Land Inc. has expressed disappointment over the decision of Malacañang to rebid the P35.4 billion Cavite – Laguna expressway (Calax).

Team Orion, a 50-50 joint venture between Ayala and Aboitiz Land, said the Office of the President should conduct the rebidding immediately and should make sure that the government could gain P20 billion after it acted on the appeal filed by San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

“We expect the rebidding to be conducted swiftly, above board and in line with established bidding procedures in order to ensure that the government obtains the P20 billion it had assumed to gain,” the joint venture said in a statement.

Team Orion said it would not oppose the rebidding of the public private partnership (PPP) project but would not join the process.

“Team Orion is disappointed by the decision of the Office of the President to rebid the Calax project. However, in the interest of national progress, Team Orion will not stand in the way of the Calax rebid,” the company added.

President Aquino has directed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to rebid the Calax project based on the appeal filed by disqualified bidder San Miguel Corp. (SMC). SMC’s Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. (OIDI) put forward a bid of P20.1 billion that was not accepted by DPWH.

Ayala Corp. managing director John Eric Francia earlier said the company has yet to receive any formal notice from the Office of the President on the rebidding of Calax.

“We don’t want to overemphasize this but that is still the position of the company. We believe that the original bid was conducted in a fair and transparent manner. It just doesn’t make sense if we participate in the rebid,” Recto said.

It would be recalled that Team Orion submitted the highest bid of P11.659 billion followed by MP CALA Holdings Inc. of infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) with P11.33 billion, and Malaysian-owned Alloy MTD Philippines with P922 million.

On the other hand, OIDI was disqualified through a June 11 resolution issued by the Bids and Awards Committee of the DPWH due to a defect in its bid as its bid security was short of the 180-day validity period requirement as its security was valid only until Nov. 25, 2014 instead of the required Nov. 29, 2014.