What’s delaying “Build Build Build”?

in Cavite, passing along or through Manila Bay. The winning PrivatePublic Partnership ( PPP) or Build- Operate- Maintain ( BOM) bidder must prove that it can provide, perform and achieve performance parameters as follows:

The road must be usable in all kinds of weather, even in gale force winds;

It must be drivable even in heavy rain or fog (specify the minimum visibility limits);

It should be easy to maintain without massive shutdowns or closures that throttle capacity below 50 percent maxi

It should allow or maintain unhampered passage by other forms of transport (water, air and rail) that are about or intersect the MMBMEX’s right of way;

Charge a toll of no more than PXX. XX per kilometer (to be determined by the National Economic and Development Authority) subject to the usual Toll Regulatory Board rate adjustment parameters; and

Specify a maximum time of one hour and 30 minutes in order to complete an percent of highway max capacity. This maximum journey time will also be the benchmark guide for the operations and maintenance contract holder to target and build capacity expansion during a 30-year franchise.

The BOM/PPP proponent/bidder is also encouraged to design, build and plan the tollway in such a way that it is at least one step (or even demand for the duration of the 30- year franchise life. At the bidding stage, the proponent should already include and drainage enhancements, facilities, forecourts and even bypasses and tunnels.

With a broad objective, the proponents/bidders can build anything they deem necessary. A 120-kilometer Mariveles to Maragondon coastal expressway along Manila Bay ? A combination bridge and under-Manila Bay tunnel like the Oresund Straits bridge? Or a Tsing Mastyle stacked highway bridge connection, including a railway component ? An allundersea tunnel set-up perhaps?

And if President Duterte still insists on ODA? Insist that the government, for its own protection, provide forward exchange cover. If this is too much, it should be factored in the costs so the project itself. Early on, choosing between private sector funding and ODA should be straightforward and not a source of delay. (Vaughn Montes of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies has warned that historically speaking, Chinese, Japanese and Korean ODA funded projects take 20 percent longer than PPPs reckoned from signing ceremony, of earth moved.)

So now who decides on the winning proposal? The first hurdle must be technical feasibility. For our MMBMEX, why not tap the Hong Kong Highways Department or China’s engineering road agency that approved the Tsing Ma bridge and the Hong Kong-ZhuhaiMacau bridge? Or the Scandinavian agency that approved the Denmark to Malmo, Sweden Oresund Strait bridge, the French agency that approved the Milau viaduct over the Tarne Gorge or the Virginia Highways Department that approved the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel?

The next approving level will be for the PPP and the National Economic and Development Authority-Investment Coordination Committee (NEDA-ICC) the PPP bidding procedures should be as - delay project implementation. Perhaps also include that in case of dispute, they promise to abide by decision of a PPP ICC’s arbitration committee.

Define oligarch

Oligarchs? Well the PPP Center or the Palace should be able to draw up a cursory list of oligarchs or oligarch characteristics that should be avoided. Bidders will then sign an undertaking that they are not a company that purposes oligarchic objectives, whatever or whichever

So how about newbie companies with no track records? Easy. Besides minimum paid-in-capital requirements, newbies (or new upcoming cronies) can form consortiums. Former IDF paratrooper and LRT-1 project consultant Eli Levin, having cobbled together both LRT- 1 and MRT-3 investor consortia, knows project managers, infra designers and brand name architects like UK’s Richard Rogers or Fosters + Partners, Denmark’s Ove Arup or Germany’s Hochtief. Hire known local specialist contractors for - tronic surveillance. EasyTrip or Capstone (ex E-Pass) for electronic toll collection. - velopment Bank- approved European 1977. Readycon pavement layers and menders. TPCP for high visibility and high wear resisting road markings. That newbie consortium or consortia will now match the established conglomerates of the oligarchs.

Infra investors who’ve developed cold feet, meanwhile, shouldn’t be always taking every President Duterte rant as a marching order. These are more of a broad outline of the moral objective – yes, believe it or not, those shout-outs are moral in intention. It is to President Duterte and our country’s loss that Abella isn’t around anymore to interpret. But once investors get past the political bluster, follow our PPP bids and unsolicited proposal investor guide, there should be a lot more of them wanting to build-build-build ASAP.