The Public Works Department can proceed with the awarding of an eight-kilometer toll road connecting North Luzon Expressway and South Luzon Expressway to a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said Wednesday.
“My understanding is that they [DPWH] can award it… if they wish,” Dominguez said in an interview at the sidelines of a Senate hearing on the proposed 2017 budget.
Former finance secretary Cesar Purisima earlier issued an opinion requiring MPIC to set up a special purpose company for the project.
Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corp., a unit of MPIC, was expected to win the eight-kilometer tollroad, as no other company participated in the Swiss Challenge on July 25.
The Aquino administration delayed the awarding of the project to MPTDC because the firm was not considered a separate special purpose company.
Dominguez said Purisima’s opinion was “not ex-cathedra” or not infallible.
Dominguez, however, said he was not willing to recall the opinion made by Purisima. “No, at this time no. But they [DPWH] can do it if they see it fit. It’s not ex cathedra,” Dominguez said.
The project involves the construction, operation and maintenance of an eight-kilometer elevated expressway over the right of way of Philippine National Railways.
It starts from C3 Road in Caloocan City through Manila, crossing over España Boulevard, PUP in Sta. Mesa and connecting Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3.
The PPP Center earlier said that once completed, the NLEx-SLEx connector road was expected to decongest traffic in Metro Manila by providing an alternative to C-5 Road, Edsa and other major thoroughfares. It would cut travel time between NLEx and SLEx to 15 minutes to 20 minutes from more than an hour at present.
The government decided to subject the project to a Swiss challenge after the Justice Department issued a legal opinion, saying the National Economic and Development Authority board’s decision to implement the project as a joint venture was “without factual basis or jurisdiction.”
MPTDC was expected to invest P15.74 billion in the NLEx-SLEx project, while the government would spend P7.46 billion for right-of-way acquisition.
The implementation of the project is scheduled from November 2016 to February 2022.
The Public Works Department said it would implement the project, which has a total estimated cost of P23.2 billion and a concession period of 35 years.