DoT, TIEZA to fund tourism center project

THE Philippine Travel Center Complex (PTCC) has been delisted from the public-private partnership (PPP) pipeline of projects and will now be financed through internal government funds.

“Secretary ( Wanda Corazon T.) Teo wrote NEDA to withdraw it as PPP but will be pursued using the budget,” said National Economic and Development Authority ( NEDA) Deputy Director- General Rolando G. Tungpalan in a text.

“The Department of Tourism (DoT) will implement with TIEZA (Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority) funds/ execution,” said NEDA Director Jonathan L. Uy.

According to the Public Private Partnership Center (PPPC), the DoT will now be focusing on the New Nayong Pilipino at Entertainment City Project.

“On the Philippine Travel Center Complex, actually the agency has informed us that they will no longer pursue a PPP for the project,” said PPP Center Executive Director Ferdinand A. Pecson in a chance interview at Malacañang.

The P1.747-billion PTCC, which cleared the Investment Coordination Committee Cabinet Committee (ICC-CC) in October 2015, was slated for NEDA Board approval before the DoT withdrew it early in the year.

The PTCC was DoT’s first PPP project under the Aquino administration and is expected to be built in Intramuros to house various tourism-related agencies.

The project included two fourstorey structures with one building supposed to house the DoT and its attached agencies in three floors as well as allow other spaces for commercial use while the other building, to be located within Fort Santiago, will be exclusively for commercial purposes.

With the PTCC out of the pipeline, the New Nayong Pilipino at Entertainment City Project remains DoT’s only PPP project and has advanced from the ICC-CC for NEDA Board approval.

Last week, the ICC- CC approved 55 key projects under the Duterte administration and will be announced in April once the list is presented to President Rodrigo R. Duterte. —