HIGHER TOLLS, creation of a coordinating agency for water utilities and the delayed public-private partnership (PPP) program were tackled by President Benigno S. C. Aquino III and Cabinet officials in two successive meetings this week.
Mr. Aquino, speaking to reporters after inspecting a newly acquired warship, noted that the government would have to manage the implementation of a Supreme Court decision upholding the imposition of the 12% value-added tax (VAT) on tolls.
“It will register in the transport sector … the additional toll fee to be paid because of VAT will be centavos per kilo [for cargo trucks]; for the passenger of the bus, roughly P1 per passenger,” Mr. Aquino said in Filipino.
“So there will be a series of hearings with the TRB (Toll Regulatory Board), with the stakeholders … to come up with the schedules when it will be implemented, to hear if there’s opposition or explanation of system,” he explained.
Economic managers, Mr. Aquino added, on Monday also discussed ways to better regulate the utilization of water and were proposing the creation of a “super-body” subsuming existing agencies.
“Water is a very important resource; if it is not managed properly there will be shortages … The economic cluster will be proposing a super-body — it can be a committee, it can be just one agency — who will come up with a water plan,” he said.
The proposal, if adopted, would affect agencies such as the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and the National Irrigation Authority.
“Bottom line, there are so many departments, agencies, of government in charge of water. Given how many there are, it’s almost as though no one is in charge,” Mr. Aquino said.
Sec. Ramon “Ricky” A. Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning office said PPP projects were discussed in succeeding meeting yesterday.
“We talked about PPP, we’re looking at the project status and which ones can move forward faster. We’re looking at the projects individually and seeing where the bottlenecks are and seeing what can be done about it. It’s kind of a long process,” he told reporters.
Sought for comment, Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio L. Singson said “The Daang Hari is ongoing,” referring to the P1.956-billion Daang Hari project that is currently being offered for bidding.
The government, however, is studying how to bring down costs for the P10.6-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Expressway. Mr. Singson said the study has been targeted for completion by Sept. 15.
“With the NAIA Expressway, we have to look at how we can reduce cost because a large subsidy is needed to make it viable, so we’re looking at different alignments and their impact on price,” he said.
Mr. Singson said there were also discussions to change the specifications of the P21-billion North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway connector.
“We are in discussions with the proponents, with MPTC (Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.),” he said.
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Source: Business World, Aug. 23, 2011
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