P84-Million Cagayan water project attracts lone bidder

MANILA, Philippines — The P84-million Baggao municipal water project in Cagayan, assisted for procurement by the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center, has attracted a consortium of municipal water service providers as its only prospective bidder, the agency said.

Representatives from the provincial government of Cagayan and PPP received the prequalification documents submitted by Tubig Pilipinas Group Inc. on March 6 at the municipal hall of Baggao.

The water project involves the provision of potable piped water supply service to households in the municipality. It would be inclusive of the development of a water supply source, as well as a transmission and distribution mechanism. The new water system is expected to serve 24 barangays initially. This comprises 21,160 persons out of the total municipal population of 78,200. 

The winning bidder would finance, design and construct the water supply facilities, including bulk water source, storage facilities and transmission and distribution lines. The private firm would also operate and maintain the facilities over a 25-year concession period.

It would be structured as a design-build-operate-and-transfer project and would undergo a competitive two-state public bidding process under the BOT Law.

The project initially drew the interest of two other water companies during the prequalification conference in January – Eco-System Technologies, and Northking Construction.

On its website,Tubig Pilipinas Group. Inc. is identified as a consortium of Princess Urduja Waterworks System Inc., Quadcore Construction and Development Corp., Repower Energy Development Corp. and Coal Asia Holdings Inc.

The company said the group is expanding operations in underserved areas beyond the expansion reach of Metro Manila-based water conglomerates.

It has bulk water projects in Bacolod City; Echague, Isabela; Cadiz City, Negros Occidental; Trece Martires, General Trias, and Tanza in Cavite province; and Sual and Calasiao in Pangasinan.

Since 2015, the PPP Center has been providing the local government of Baggao, a first class municipality in Cagayan, with technical assistance in preparation for the project tender.

It has also been assisted by the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank.

In the second half of 2017, the PPP Center announced it would be more aggressive in facilitating the use of the PPP mode of procurement for LGUs as the national government leans toward the use of official development assistance (ODA) and own funds for big-ticket infrastructure projects.

Since the rollout of the center’s LGU strategy last year, local governments have put forward several proposals for PPP projects, many of which still fall under the traditional projects like the modernization of public markets and other municipal infrastructure.

The center, however, has said that it would select projects that provide vital services (like water) and would ensure these have sufficient scale to make it attractive for investors.