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PPP Co-Sponsorship Speech
PPP Co-Sponsorship Speech
CO-SPONSORSHIP SPEECH
PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PPP) ACT
by Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph G. Recto
15 December 2015
Mr. President:
I have purposely shunned using visual aids today in
order not to remind you of the moniker once given to
the Public Private Partnership program whose initials
was spoofed as PowerPoint Presentation.
But today that label is slowly being archived to history.
Since its inception, 10 projects have been awarded, 2
are up for implementation, 55 in the pipeline including
14 for procurement.
In the case of the Daang Hari-SLEX Road, what was
once flashed on the screens during roadshows as a
proposal is a completed road by now.
But if some PPP proposals get stuck as PowerPoint
presentations for a long time, and marinate in the sweat
of their proponents, then there must be something
wrong with the legal framework which makes their
birthing difficult.
That is true. If infrastructure projects crawl, the fix is not
always engineering or financial in nature. The remedy
can sometimes be legislative.
But before I explain why this bill is needed by the PPP,
let me first tell you why the PPP is needed by this
country.
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five government representatives Secretaries of SocioEconomic Planning, Finance, Budget, Public Works
and Highways, and Transportation and
Communications and four from the private sector.
As I mentioned earlier, the bill safeguards public
interest.
Public consultation with all potential stakeholders,
including the users, in all stages of the PPP project, is
made mandatory.
The implementing agency shall assess the affordability
of fee or tariff, and conduct a genuine willingness-topay survey among the users of the infrastructure
facility.
Approved starting fare or user fee in a PPP project as
well as the approved parametric formula on fare
increases or adjustments, if applicable, must be posted
on government websites.
This bill also allows Viability Gap Funding or VGF
which is the financial support the government may
extend to a concession-based PPP project with the
objective of making user fees affordable and thus
retaining the commercial attractiveness of the project.
Hopefully, this will address in part the fee-setting and
the investment recovery issues associated with
premium payments which can inflate project cost.
Admittedly, a PPP project, or for that matter any
investment is not devoid of any risk.
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