Negotiations for Subic-Clark-Tarlac Road OK’d

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Negotiations for the Subic-Clark-Tarlac toll road project, which President Arroyo has identified in her 10-point agenda, are not expected to be finished until yearend at the earliest.

This, as the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) continues to haggle with its contractors to bring down the project cost by about P1.1 billion.

In an interview with The STAR, BCDA vice president for operations Antonio Rex Chan said the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) has finally given the BCDA the go-signal to negotiate with Japanese contractors Kajima and Hasama for the P21-billion, 93.8-kilometer road stretching from Tipo Road at the Subic Bay Freeport to Tarlac City.

Chan said the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) has allocated P21 billion for the toll road project.

"We just have to settle things here," he said.

The NEDA initially approved the project at a cost of P15 billion, but delays in its implementation and various economic factors prompted the government to raise the cost ceiling to P21 billion.

In a bidding last December, however, the two Japanese firms offered the lowest bid of about P27 billion for the two phases of the project.

The BCDA has succeeded in persuading the contractors to bring down the cost, but they insisted on P22.1 billion, which is still higher than the P21-billion ceiling, by striking off some components of the project, particularly the interchange near the Friendship Gate of the Clark special economic zone.

"It’s wrong to pinpoint the blame on the BCDA. We are getting the loan for the project in Japanese yen and we will pay the contractors in yen too. If at all, the NEDA should have a better idea that the yen would depreciate from 2.8 yen to 1.94 yen to the peso, and this has jacked up the project cost," Chan said.

"Now that the NEDA has given us the go-signal to negotiate with the lowest-bidding contractors, we will try to haggle with them to bring down the cost to the ceiling of P21 billion," he said.

Chan said rebidding the project would delay it by two years.

The toll road is expected to boost both regional and national economies by linking Subic Bay’s world-class seaport to the Diosdado Macapacal International Airport here, and providing further access to Northern Luzon with the toll road extending up to Tarlac City.

Once the contractors agree to further bring down the project cost to the P21-billion ceiling, Chan said the NEDA is expected to approve the contract and endorse the project to the JBIC.

Chan earlier said the BCDA had spent some P600 million for the acquisition of properties to be traversed by the toll road .

"We are about 98-percent complete in the payment of disturbance compensation for landowners and farmers to be affected by the toll road construction," he said, adding that the BCDA has initially allocated some P1.2 billion for this.

"While we allocated some P150 per square meter for such compensation, we were able to acquire rights to the properties at an average of only P70 per square meter, so we have much savings in this regard," he said.

While 98 percent of the areas to be traversed by the toll road have already been cleared, Chan said some of the remaining areas have been problematic.

He cited the case of a property in Barangay Planas, Porac, Pampanga whose tillers are not the same ones who were awarded the land under the agrarian reform program.

"In cases where such problems cannot be resolved immediately, the BCDA would resort to expropriation proceedings without prejudice to cases still to be resolved by the agrarian courts," he said.