YEARENDER: DOTC rolls out several infrastructure projects

MANILA, Philippines - The year 2012 saw another leadership change at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), but focus was still on management’s urgency to roll out infrastructure projects to be funded by the private sector under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

The tragic demise of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo in a plane crash last Aug. 18 shook the DOTC when its then chief, Secretary Manuel Roxas II, was tapped to fill the vacancy at the DILG.

Roxas’ departure from the DOTC and his replacement by his close Liberal Party (LP) ally, then Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, late last August necessitated another adjustment in the top hierarchy of the department that had undergone a similar change the year before.

Roxas took with him his trusted aide, then DOTC Undersecretary Rafael Santos, at the DILG and appointed him as “supervising undersecretary.”

Early this month, President Aquino appointed former Armed Forced of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Oban as DOTC undersecretary for operations, filling the post vacated by Santos, and leaving the Clark Development Corp., where he was appointed as chairman after his retirement from the AFP.

Roxas assumed the DOTC post in July 2011 when then Secretary Jose de Jesus abruptly resigned. He also brought with him his handpicked executives and appointed them to undersecretary positions.

Some sectors said the DOTC “stood still” during his leadership.

Roxas and his men conducted another round of review on all projects and accomplished project feasibility studies and packaging efforts, practically in total disregard of those already done during De Jesus’ one-year term.

In his accomplishment report submitted at the end of about six months at DOTC in January 2011, De Jesus revealed that the new DOTC leadership had conducted a review of contracts that covered a total of 130 contracts.

Of the 130, he said 111 were cleared, with the remaining 19 remaining suspended and likely to be scrapped.

Interestingly, it surfaced that of the 19 contracts not given the green light, 18 were related to the efforts of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) to prepare the controversial Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal III for full commercial operations.

The terminal is currently being partially used by local budget carriers Cebu Pacific, PAL Express, and Air Phil Express.

De Jesus said that the 18 contracts related to NAIA 3 were all for the airport management systems of the terminal.

However, he said that MIAA had divided the various components of the systems into separate contracts even if these were supposed to be integrated.

He said that the 18 contracts will be altogether scrapped in the future due to irregularities.

‘Roxas’ team at DOTC intact’

Abaya, for his part, said that his assumption as DOTC chief had not caused any delays in any projects being packaged by the DOTC or due for bidding or implementation, or another period of adjustment where the head of agency had to go through another “learning curve.”

“We were very careful with the transition. The team (of Roxas) is almost intact. I only brought in a HEA (head executive assistant). The undersecretaries and assistant secretaries (appointed by Roxas) are intact. Usec. Paeng (Rafael Santos) had to leave but there is Usec. Oban,” Abaya told The STAR.

However, Abaya’s assurance that there will be no changes in policy did not sit well with the business sector that has been frustrated with the seeming sluggishness of the Roxas team in conducting their review especially of the PPP transportation infrastructure projects that have already been packaged and evaluated during the time of De Jesus, and even before during the previous Arroyo administration.

The international anti-graft watchdog Transparency International (TI), which zeroed in on the much-delayed public bidding for the P8.2-billion contract for a new information technology (IT) infrastructure and database systems for the Land Transportation Office (LTO), was very vocal about the DOTC’s apparent lack of urgency despite tight deadlines given the lapsing contracts of contractors.

TI Philippines, in a nine-page letter sent to Abaya, the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB), COA and the Ombudsman, said that while the DOTC was aware of the approaching expiration of Stradcom’s contract on Feb. 10, 2013, the DOTC Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) had been slow in conducting their bid, laying the ground for Stradcom’s retention as LTO’s IT provider for several months.

Abaya, in an interview late last year, admitted that the DOTC-BAC was still reviewing the bids submitted by three consortia bidding for the P8.2- billion LTO IT project.

He also admitted that the DOTC will have to extend Stradcom as LTO IT provider, since any selected winning bidder for the new contract will need around six months to fully activate and set up the new infrastructure and systems database.

During his term, Roxas announced a number of impressive-sounding projects and breakthroughs with indicated timelines that failed to beat the deadlines.

Last June, Roxas announced the signing of a final civil works agreement (CWA) with NAIA 3 sub-contractor Takenaka Corp., to complete the unfinished portion and systems of the terminal “soon” after a meeting with its top officials, mostly members of Japan’s Takenaka family last March.

Abaya said that the CWA was scheduled for signing first week of January 2013.

Roxas had also announced that the DOTC, through the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), will require all passenger buses plying Metro Manila routes especially EDSA, to install “speed limiters” to curb the rising number of road deaths caused by speeding buses within 2012.

By 2013, Roxas said that provincial buses will also be required to install speed limiters.

In a recent interview, Abaya said that the measure was still due for implementation but through the provision in the bus franchises issued by the LTFRB either as new or renewed franchise.

The DOTC is also still in the initial stages of bidding out the big-ticket Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 Cavite extension project that will cost P60 billion.

Due to government’s accommodation of two connector road projects linking the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) and the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), particularly the Metro Pacific’s connector road proposal, Metro Manila Skyway and SLEX operator Citra-San Miguel Corp. is also being prevented from starting their Skyway extension project that will link the elevated tollway to NLEX, basically on the issue of how the Metro Pacific connector will link with their Skyway extension project to NLEX.