The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Jerry Maglunog
The country’s development can’t be sustained unless all the flagship Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects of the government are bidded out and built, an official of investment banking house unit of the Metrobank group First Metro Investments Corp. (FMIC) said.
FMIC President Rabonni Francis Arjonillo said there should be more infrastructure to attract more investors.
Arjonillo said the more roads, bridges and airports with long runways there are, the better for the economy.
Arjonillo added there are only six PPP projects of the 20 listed under the government’s PPP Center that were built in the current administration.
“If you would count the number of routes needed to reach destinations where jobs and opportunities are severely lacking, no one would say that six is enough,” the official said in a recent media briefing.
Arjonillo said hastening the implementation of projects listed at the PPP Center will be a major challenge “whoever the next president is.”
He said that it does not matter from which party the next president comes and paraphrased the late Chinese President Deng Xiaoping who said it doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it can catch a mouse.
Some sources at the financial market believe that fear of criminal suits has prevented the current administration, led by President Aquino, from implementing the many projects listed under PPP.
“There are plenty of airports in the Philippines but the runways are short. PPP needs to take action on this so that places where prospects of high tourism revenues will be reached,” said Reynaldo Montalbo, the head of treasury of FMIC.
“Whoever wins is immaterial. What matters most are the projects that he or she will implement so that those transferring their goods from one place to another need not spend hours in traffic or ports,” the treasury head added.
For former Budget and Neda Director-General Romulo Neri, the best way to build more infrastructure is to abandon the PPP and let national government shoulder all the expenses.
Neri said the government’s cash position is enough to cover all the projects needed to be constructed. “If they can fund any endeavor like the impeachment of Corona why not spend for new roads and expressways,” the former technocrat said in an interview last year.
Based on PPP website, there are no less than 20 big- ticket PPP projects that need to be built to spur development. The two biggest are the P124-billion Laguna Lake expressway project and the P70-billion Cavite-Laguna expressway (Calax).
However, both projects are stalled, awaiting approval by the National Economic and Development Authority. Three other projects, all under the Department of Transportation and Communications, worth over P130 billion are also equally important, PPP Executive Director Suzette Canilao said.
These are the P6.28-billion C-5 Modern Bus Transit System Project, the P50.15-billion Ortigas-Taytay LRT Line 4 Project and the P74.56-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Development Project.
The remaining project is the P10.53-billion Batangas-Manila (BatMan) 1 Natural Gas Pipeline Project of the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC). The projects are listed in the PPP Center website as “projects that are currently undergoing evaluation by the appropriate government body.”