Adopt existing joint venture rules for PPP projects, government urged

MANILA, Philippines - A private think tank is urging the Aquino government to continue employing the joint venture (JV) guidelines drawn up by the previous administration as a vehicle to establish public-private partnerships (PPP).

In its latest policy paper, Forensic Law and Policy Strategies Inc. (Forensic Solutions), headed by former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, said this would help bankroll big-ticket infrastructure projects (including energy-related ones), considering that safety nets are firmly in place to guarantee full transparency and a competitive selection process in using this framework.

Forensic Solutions said this set of JV guidelines was the framework used in at least five successful big-ticket infrastructure projects, among them the development of the North Triangle Subdivision site in Quezon City through the partnership of Ayala Land and the National Housing Authority, and the transformation of the North Bonifacio District in the erstwhile Fort Bonifacio military camp in Taguig through a joint venture of the Bases Conversion Development Authority and Megaworld Corp.

According to Forensic Solutions, the JV guidelines, which the private sector PPP Coalition wants repealed, were also the same set of parameters used by the Philippine Tourism Authority and the Manila Water Co. Inc. in developing the Boracay Water Supply and Sewerage Systems and by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority and the Cagayan Land Property Development Corp.

 “The call to scrap the JV guidelines unfairly trumps the benefits thus far experienced by government entities and counterpart private sectors that pursued this mode of PPP,” the paper said.