DOTC opens bid for P17.5B Mactan-Cebu airport on Dec. 12

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications on Tuesday announced that it will open the financial proposals for the P17.5 billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport project on December 12.

Like the Automatic Fare Collection System bid, the DOTC said the tendering process for the first airport Public-Private Partnership project has already been fast-tracked to speed up the government's infrastructure program.

The DOTC's announcement came after it auctioned off the common ticketing system project for the Light Rail Transit and Metro Rail Transit lines on Monday.

"We are expediting work on our PPPs.  Especially now that we are re-bidding the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension (LRT-1 Cavex) project and preparing to bid out the Integrated Transport System (ITS) project later this month," DOTC spokesperson Michael Arthur Sagcal said.

The DOTC said it will complete the technical evaluation stage for the MCIA project on Wednesday to determine how many of the seven bidders will be eligible for the financial evaluation phase. This will pave the way for the opening of financial proposals on Thursday.

It added that in the AFCS auction, three of the five bidders’ financial proposals were opened, yielding highly-advantageous offers to government.

“We are very happy with the turnout.  Our Dutch transaction advisors even tell us that this is the first AFCS tender in the world which resulted in negative bids or proposals to pay government, so that’s a testament to how well the project was structured," Sagcal said.

AF Consortium, which submitted the lowest bid is subject of financial evaluation under the Build-Operate-and-Transfer Law, proposed to implement the common ticketing scheme with zero transaction fees for commuters, while paying government a premium of more than P1.088 billion spread out over the 10-year concession period.

SM Consortium, which submitted the next lowest bid, gave a similar proposal by offering to pay a premium of exactly P 1.088 billion.

Meanwhile, new players have indicated interest in bidding for the LRT-1 Cavex project, with local construction giant Megawide Corporation and Spanish rail transport operator Globalvia purchasing bid documents.

The DMCI and San Miguel groups, both of which pre-qualified to bid in the original tender, have obtained bid documents as well.

The DOTC plans to start the bidding process for the ITS terminal on Coastal Road within the month.