Amendments to BOT Law pushed

MANILA, Philippines — The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center is pushing for amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law, including changes on the threshold for projects that need to go through the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Investment Coordination Committee (ICC), as part of efforts to promote more PPPs.

Speaking at the 2022 Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines Infrastructure Forum co-presented by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and PLDT Inc. yesterday, PPP Center executive director Ma. Cynthia Hernandez said the agency is working on the enactment of the PPP Act, citing the need to address ambiguities in the BOT Law that cannot be resolved by the recent revisions made to the law’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR).

“So, we are working with the presidential legislative liaison office to put forward a draft bill that we hope will be able to address ambiguities in the existing law, address bottlenecks in the PPP program, and foster a more competitive and enabling environment,” she said.

She said among the changes the PPP Center wants to see is the removal of the P300 million cap on projects that need to be evaluated by the NEDA ICC in the law.

“If you were to ask me, I would rather not have the cap in the law, but in the IRR so that it’s easier to amend,” she said.

She said it would be easier to adjust the threshold if it was left to the ICC to determine the cap for project approval.

Given the movements in prices, she said P300 million is not considered a huge project anymore.

In addition, she said the cap limits the project size that government entities want to pursue because of the NEDA ICC process.

Aside from the project cost threshold, she said the PPP Center also wants the law to clarify how local government units (LGUs) can do PPPs, to do away with uncertainties that may limit participation in PPP projects.

She said there is a lot of interest from LGUs to implement PPPs in healthcare, transport, water supply and sanitation.

“What we really hope to do is to have a law that really enables PPPs in the country,” she said.

Apart from the amendments to the BOT Law, she said the PPP Center is working on streamlining the approval process for PPP projects.

She said there are also efforts to diversify PPP financing, and in line with this, the PPP Center has started discussions with the Government Service Insurance System on the deployment of an infrastructure fund.

Moreover, she said the PPP Center is crafting guidelines on auditing.

“We’ve already coordinated with the Commission on Audit to help auditors, government auditors be familiar with the principles of PPPs,” she said.

So far, a total of 199 PPP projects worth P2.32 trillion had been awarded by the government. Of these projects, 88 are national in scope and 111 are at the local level.

Meanwhile, there are 74 projects worth around P2.258 trillion in the pipeline. These include the University of the Philippines Philippine General Hospital (UP PGH) Diliman, UP PGH Manila Cancer Center, Ormoc City Water Supply System, UP Los Baños Agro-Industrial Information and Technology Parks, San Ramon Newport in Zamboanga, Metro Manila Subway operations and maintenance, North-South Commuter Rail operations and maintenance, and the Quezon City Solid Waste Management facility.