Youth group bats for PPP investor protection

MANILA, Philippines - A youth group expressed their support for the move of President Aquino to provide investors with protection against so-called “regulatory risks” that could jeopardize projects under the so-called public-private partnership (PPP) investment projects.

Leander Marquez, lead convenor and spokesman of the PiNOY MARkA AKO, also urged that accompanying legislation be passed in Congress to make it a crime for government officials to unduly delay, impede, and otherwise obstruct the implementation of duly approved PPP projects, which are similar to build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects.

Regulatory risks, he said, are a common complaint by investors, especially foreign, who have participated in BOT projects.

He cited the cases of the machine readable passport and visa BOT (MRPV) project, which was terminated by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo; and the alien certificate of registration identity card (ACR I-Card) project, which was ordered scrapped by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The MRPV project is undergoing arbitration proceedings while the ACR I-Card project has been ordered resumed on the strength of two legal opinions by the Department of Justice.

Marquez said “a government official cannot invoke government interest in seeking the suspension, amendment or termination of a duly approved PPP or BOT contract, because he is in effect substituting his own personal judgment in lieu of the multi-agency and (National Economic and Development Authority) approval process.”

Marquez said only by passing such legislation will investors truly have protection against the arbitrariness of government officials who have regulatory supervision over PPP and BOT projects.

“When a business group invests in a PPP or BOT project, the government is insulated from attendant financial risks. When a project fails, or project implementation is terminated, corporate bankruptcy and incalculable financial ruin on investors can set in,” Marquez said.