Prison PPP bidding pushed back to 2017
BIDDING for the P50.2-billion regional prison facility (RPF), which is to rise at the Fort Magsaysay military reservation in Nueva Ecija, has moved further to 2017, according to the Department of Justice’s Pre- Qualifications, Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC).
In a General Bid Bulletin, the DOJ said: “Pre-qualified bidders will have more time to work on their bid proposals” with the postponement of bidding to April 27, 2017, from Nov. 24, 2016.
The pre-qualified bidders are Mega Structure Consortium, San Miguel Holdings, Inc. and DM Consunji group.
This was the fourth delay in bidding, with the original bid deadline set for March 2016
The DOJ said in previous statements that it is ”still in the process of addressing various matters to ensure the availability of the project site, including the possible issuance of a presidential proclamation for the project site; a possible agreement with another government agency regarding an access road; and the possible delineation of the boundary between the project site and the Tabuating river dam project.”
The RPF is a project of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Bureau of Corrections (BOC), through a public-private partnership (PPP) project where the partners will be responsible for the financing, detailed design and construction, and maintenance of the prison facility.
The P50.2- billion project includes the construction of a modern prison facility with living space, facilities, and provision of certain basic needs for detainees currently unavailable at the overcrowded New Bilibid Prison ( NBP) and the Correctional Institution for Women.
The current administration’s “war on drugs,” affirmed the demand for new prison facilities. The NBP currently houses 24,000 inmates, even though the facility was made for only 9,000.
The RPF is designed to hold 26,880 inmates. —