Quick action needed on unwarranted protests delaying infrastructure projects

There ought to be a law that gravely penalizes any party or individual that files a protest on a winning infrastructure project bid, especially if the motion is found to be baseless. We’ve seen too many crucial projects that get delayed, and it is the nation that ultimately suffers.

With improved government bidding procedures in place to date, and the use of technology and transparency on tenders for public infrastructure projects, it has admittedly become more difficult for rigging to take place. The anomalies, truly, in recent years have seemingly lessened.

Yet, when a bidder decides to lodge a protest when losing after participating in a long and relatively open process, the painful reality sets in that the particular project – after going through about a year or more of bidding – may face longer delays.

It seems pointless for some cases to go through such interruptions. Take the case of the recently bid five-year rehabilitation and maintenance of the 123.5-kilometer Surigao-Davao-Surigao (Lipata)-Agusan del Norte road.

Located in CARAGA’s Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur, which is regarded to have one of the highest poverty rates in the country, the rehabilitation and maintenance of the road would help spur economic growth in the area by helping improve the transport of goods and people.

The P3.5-billion project is to be funded 76 percent by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the remaining 24 percent by the Philippine government. Plainly, JICA has a bigger stake in this project, and ultimately would be stricter in the selection and awarding process.

JICA’s go-ahead

After going through the public bidding for the project, the Department of Public Works and Highways announced the lone bidder of the project – the joint venture of Equi-Parco Construction Co. and Hebei Road and Bridge Group Co., Ltd. – to have won. The award was jointly approved by the JICA in two separate instances.

JICA is regarded as one of the strictest managers of overseas development assistance, and having an exposure of P2.37 billion in the Surigao-Davao-Surigao (Lipata)-Agusan del Norte road project with a total approved budget of P3.42 billion would make them doubly aware and vigilant of possible rigging.

Therefore, when a seemingly disinterested party, together with the local anti-corruption “watchdogs,” came forward to file a protest in Congress no less, and even cite erroneous figures, things do not seem to be as nationalistic as one is made to believe.

The probe that was eventually promised, after a barrage of protest letters from those seeking to stop the road project from continuing, will seem to be an utter waste of our lawmakers’ time and resources.

The protest party alleged the winning bid of Equi-Parco/Hebei amounting to P3.32 billion was about 20 percent higher than the budgeted amount. Upon further verification, it came out that the bid was in fact 2.95 percent lower than approved budget.

Outright disinformation should be a crime of treason, especially if involving government projects like this crucial road where countless farmers and fisher folks stand to benefit from a smoother ride when bringing their produce to trading centers.

Solution needed

Infrastructure delays indeed are penalizing the Philippines, and acting as a drag in the economy’s attempt to take off to higher levels. At this time when the rest of the world is already starting to wake up after having been hit by the massive global economic downturn in recent years, we have to get our act together.

We’re talking here not just of delaying protests during the bidding and awarding process, but also during the project implementation. All of these are making banks and foreign investors fidget over the wisdom of investing in the Philippines.

Solutions are needed from our lawmakers to smoothen the way for infrastructure projects to be bidded out and awarded with the least interference, as well as for construction to proceed with as little delay as possible.

Of course, a solution must also be sought to keep kibitzers that protest about the terms of turnkey projects from being implemented. Power and utility companies, as well as road tollway firms are examples of such business sectors that have suffered from delays by protests stopping the application of agreed rate increases.

In defense of networking

One of our readers, Wilbert N. Cacafranca, who professes to be “a networker, an honest worker, a proud OFW” from Abu Dhabi, UAE, sent an interesting letter in reaction to some recent pieces of this column on the prevalence of scams in the Philippines.

Here’s what Wilfred sent: “I am an OFW and an active networker. I do have a couple of accounts in the list of [what is said to be] scam networking businesses.

“I go and join with the ones who have a product to sell and a good monetary compensation plan. I think the main aim for SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] is for ‘companies/operators’ to get registered and get taxes out of this millions of remittances pouring into our country from the various types of ‘scam networking companies’.

“When you have your own shop/store with a complete license and registration and you’re selling basic commodities in what we call a sari-sari store, you will not be considered or framed as a scam.

“But when you have someone in front of your sari-sari store selling the same thing that you have on stock, for sure you will blow up and you will consider this person as a scam, for he does not have the proper license and registration plus the fact that he is directly selling in front of your shop.

“I call this leveraging. Leverage is the secret why the top Chinese giant investors in our country make millions everyday; they build one single building and have thousands of sales clerks.

“Other giant companies sell by using giant TV channels by way of advertising, either online or by streamlining, or live, and they pay millions of pesos each time the commercial adverts are aired.

“With networking, it is usually done by small time individuals like me, who can only afford to have a capital of less than P50,000, and who only use the word of mouth to promote a product to make gains.

“I believe that a scam is only applicable to people who are greedy and dishonest. The system of networking cannot be a scam. It is the people who use and apply the system who are scams. Same thing has to be applied to some of our government elected leaders who are purely scams.”

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Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.