The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Seven properties of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) are being considered for possible privatization, according to TIEZA Chief Operating Officer Mark Lapid.
is open to fully privatizating seven of its properties, among which is the once-popular Paoay Golf Course and Mt. Data Hotel.
Lapid said, “For the properties that we own, that are titled to us, we are definitely open to outright sale, not only for joint venture. But for those that are not titled to us, joint venture is one of our modes [of developing the property under the PPP arrangement].”
Some of the properties considered to for straight sale include: Paoay Golf Course, Mt. Data Hotel, the Balacad property in Laoag, Ilocos Norte (123,387 square meters); Kang Irag Golf Course in Cebu (945,413 sqm); Agoo Aplaya Hotel in La Union (35,000 sqm); San Fabian Bagong Lipunan Lodge in Pangasinan (57,935 sqm); and a Baguio lot.
The Paoay Golf Course is a 77-hectare property in Ilocos Norte, with an 18-hole golf course. Tourists from Japan, South Korea, and mainland China used to play there, but since chartered flights to the Laoag International Airport were suspended, visitors have dwindled. The golf course is currently being rehabilitated by TIEZA.
The 22-room Mt. Data Hotel (77,060 sqm) is located in Bauko, Mountain Province. It bears historic significance, being the venue of the peace agreement signing in September 1986 between the Cory Aquino administration and the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army.
TIEZA is a government corporation tasked to build tourism infrastructure and tourism enterprise zones. Chaired by the tourism secretary, TIEZA is also the primary investment body from which tourism businesses can avail of tax incentives for their projects.
Also, TIEZA will be retaking control of the Boracay drainage project after the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) failed to complete its portion due to cost overruns.
TIEZA Assistant Chief Operating Officer Gregory Oller said, “The portion of DPWH, amounting to P175 million, they said the plan was changed. There were two alleys that were left, one of which was at D’Mall. The remaining portions total some 740 meters.”
He added that Aklan 2nd District Rep. Florencio T. Miraflores has already requested for additional funding for the project, “so it’s now under study. We’re doing our estimates.”
Oller projected the cost will be about P100 million as “one of the pumping houses had already deteriorated so we will have to replace it, because the saltwater eats into the machines. So we have to change these machines as well.”
The new funding will still have to be approved by the TIEZA Board of Directors. He said, “Hopefully, the project will be awarded by March.” “We won’t transfer the funds and project anymore to them [DPWH]; we’ll be the one to do it, since the right-of-way issues have already been addressed,” he asserted.
DPWH was supposed to secure the ROW in privately-owned areas, where the drainage system will pass, which is the reason this portion of the project was transferred to them.
Phase 1 of the two-phase, four-stage drainage expansion project in Boracay was completed by Tieza in 2014 at a cost of P91.8 million. Phase 2 had a budget of P1 billion and was supposed to have been completed by Tieza in the third quarter of 2019. It was delayed anew and was supposed to have been finished by December 2021. Phase 2 includes the construction of Pumping Station 4, sea outfall pipeline, upgrade of the main road drainage, interior drainage, among others.