MANILA, Philippines — Another government contract with the private sector believed to be disadvantageous to the public is set to be reviewed, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Thursday.
In a televised press briefing during the annual Philippines Prospects Conference of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Dominguez said a state-run financial institution entered into a lease agreement with a private company, which did not put up the structure that it agreed to build on the leased property.
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The finance chief did not elaborate.
“The nice thing about it [is] the chairman of the institution, when he was replaced, [he] left and became the chairman of that company,” Dominguez said.
“You like that? You think this administration should sit down and say, ‘Well, that was the way it was done in the past so go ahead,’” he added.
Since December last year, President Rodrigo Duterte has berated the Ayala-led Manila Water Company Inc. and Pangilinan-led Maynilad Water Services Inc. and threatened to jail their owners for supposedly forging water contracts with “onerous” provisions.
Earlier this month, Duterte told the two companies to accept the new water contracts prepared by the government or risk having their concession deals terminated.
Last week, the Duterte administration escalated its attack against businesses, particularly the Ayalas, and announced it will “probe” the lease agreement between the University of the Philippines Diliman and Ayala Land Inc. for the development of the UP-Ayala Land Technohub along Commonwealth Avenue.
The Department of Finance also last week said it would terminate an “onerous” land deal between Chevron Philippines Inc. (formerly Caltex Philippines) and one of the subsidiaries of state-run National Development Co.
Analysts and business leaders have warned that Duterte’s vitriol against some of the country’s biggest companies could turn off foreign investors at a time more infrastructure projects heavily depend on private funding and as job-generating foreign investments continue to drop.
But Dominguez said he believes investor confidence in the country is still intact, adding that the reviews of contracts are “in line with law.”
“I am not competent to answer that. I will just point out at our bond market. Our bond market is oversubscribed and our interest rate keeps on dropping. That is also an investment community, isn’t that?” he said.