PPP refutes items on SMC disqualification

This pertains to the June 17 editorial titled “PPP dilemma” and a Biz Buzz item titled “Flimsy technicality” (Business, 6/16/14), both of which touched on the disqualification of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) from the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) project of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

1. The editorial stated that “during the Naia Expressway bidding in July 2013, its lone competitor, Metro Pacific Investments Corp., submitted a noncompliant bid security that had a multiple-drawdown feature, when the bidding rules clearly required a single drawdown.”

We wish to set the record straight: The Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) of the DPWH, in a resolution dated April 15, 2013, stated that it found the technical proposals of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. and Manila North Tollways Corp. (Metro Pacific Investments Corp.) to be responsive to the requirements of the Instruction to Bidders, in form and substance. Both bidders submitted compliant bid securities that conformed to the tender document template provided to all bidders.

This was supported by the Technical Evaluation Report prepared by the Technical Working Group and DPWH advisors. Thus, the SBAC recommended the qualification of both bidders and the subsequent opening of their respective financial proposals.

We also take exception to the allegation that the “DPWH allowed a ‘viaduct or tunnel’ design to accommodate the request of the eventual winning bidder,

Ayala Corp., despite a written objection lodged even before the PPP project was opened for bidding.”

The fact is that all prequalified bidders of the Daang Hari-SLEx Link Road Project, namely, Ayala Corp., South ExpressLink Corp. and Joint Venture of DM Consunji and CM Pancho, were allowed to submit alternate designs prior to the bid submission of the project. All bidders were advised of the technical changes through the issuance of Bid Bulletin No. 8, which informed them of the amendments to the Conceptual Engineering Design (CED) for Segment II of the expressway and appurtenant structures. Bid Bulletin No. 8, in relation to the Instructions to Bidders, explicitly required that the CED for Segment II include preliminary design drawings of roundabout, viaduct or tunnel to connect with the SLEx or Susana Heights Interchange at any convenient scale.

At this juncture, it bears mentioning that written amendments in the bidding documents were allowed in the 2006 Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 7718 (Revised Build-Operate-and-Transfer Law), which was the governing IRR at the time the project was tendered. Section 6.3 of the IRR explicitly required that these amendments be issued to all bidders within a reasonable time to allow them to consider the same in the preparation of their bids, duly acknowledged by them prior to bid submission and so indicated in their bids. These requirements were strictly and faithfully observed during the procurement process of the Daang Hari-SLEx Link Road Project.

2. The Biz Buzz item “Flimsy technicality” quoted Jose Mari Lacson, head of research at Campos Lanuza & Co., as saying: “But the disqualification [of SMC from the Calax project] now puts the agency and the PPP Program in a bind. By sticking to their guns, the results plus other recent decisions imply the government favors certain PPP bidders.”

On the contrary, the decision of DPWH-SBAC to stick to the rules and its bulletins, and to faithfully observe the requirements of the Revised BOT Law and its IRR, implies fairness and consistency in applying the same to all bidders, without favoring one or some of them.

The reference to “other recent decisions” is misleading and unfounded as Lacson neither specified what these were, and neither did he provide factual proof as to how certain bidders were favored.

These facts are indisputable and are supported by official documents of the tender processes undertaken by the SBAC, in accordance with the rules, guidelines, instructions and bulletins officially made available to, and duly acknowledged by, all bidders—including SMC.

—SHERRY ANN N. AUSTRIA,

deputy executive director,

Public-Private Partnership Center,

Neda sa QC, Edsa,

Diliman, Quezon City