Small assets of gov’t to be bundled for privatization

The government plans to sort all of its small assets into bundles before selling them to the private sector, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has asked the Privatization and Management Office (PMO) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) to package small assets and bid them out as bundles to the private sector.

“Why don’t we just bundle those small assets together and sell them as one to a group, and really use our time to spend on the big-ticket items? It’s better use of our time than chasing around appraisals for small lots. Let’s just bundle them all together and bid it out,” Dominguez told reporters.

“I hope sometime by middle of next year they can come up with a plan, both agencies, PDIC and PMO,” he said.

The PMO and the PDIC are spending majority of its manpower for the appraisal and processing of minor assets, which only form a small portion of the government’s revenues, according to Dominguez.

He emphasized that bundling small assets would enable these government agencies to allot their time and effort to going after big-ticket items. However, the finance chief also acknowledged the privatization of these assets may take a long time due to legal issues.

According to Gerard Chan, chief privatization officer of the PMO, the government is targeting to privatize about P100 million worth of assets in the first quarter of 2018.

As posted on the PMO’s website, these include assets of the Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines, Delta Motors Corp., Development Bank of Rizal, Merchants Investment Corp., Paragon Paper Industries Inc., Peninsula Development Bank, Retires Servicemen Ent. Inc., and Selectra Electronics.

On the other hand, Dominguez said valuable assets that are up for privatization include the 2.9-hectare Mile Long commercial property in Makati City previously occupied by Sunvar Realty Development Corp.

He also mentioned mining sites in the Visayas and Mindanao as big-ticket items for privatization.

According to data from the PMO, it has remitted P554.44 million in dividends to the national government in the first nine months, up 36.28 percent from P406.85 in the same period in 2016.

The amount came from the proceeds of the sale of government properties, lease, landholdings covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, interest income and other dispositions.