San Miguel Corp. is opposing the construction of the proposed C3 Expressway, a new elevated toll road that will connect the cities of Manila and Pasay through the Ayala central business district, saying this will cost the government more than P26 billion.
San Miguel president Ramon Ang said the government would have to pay the conglomerate over P26 billion once it approved an unsolicited proposal from Ayala Corp. and SM Investments Corp. to build an 8.6-kilometer, elevated toll road that could affect the viability of Naia Expressway.
“If they approved anything affecting the viability of the concession, the government will have to pay us,” Ang said, referring to the P15.86-billion Naia Expressway that was built by SMC unit Optimal Infrastructure Development Corp.
“It’s P11-billion [concession] plus P15 billion [spent for construction]. That’s P26 billion plus cost of money,” Ang said.
AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ayala, and SMIC on Friday submitted an unsolicited proposal to the Public Works Department to design, finance, construct, operate and maintain for a period of 35 years a toll road called C3 Elevated Expressway.
AC Infra president and chief executive Jose Rene Almendras said C3 Ex would provide an alternative to Edsa, which was congested and improve access to the Manila Bay development areas, the Makati central business district and the cities of Mandaluyong, San Juan and Manila. It will have interchanges in Sta. Mesa, the Circuit Makati, Ayala-Gil Puyat, Roxas Boulevard and the SM Mall of Asia complex. The project could cut the travel time from one hour to only 15 minutes from Quezon City to Makati City.
The elevated toll road will run about 8.6 kilometers, linking Sta. Mesa, Manila to the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City.
“What I’m saying, they cannot build that project because it will cannibalize our Naia expressway which we paid the government P11-billion premium just to be able to build that,” Ang said.
Ang said he was confident that the Public Works Department and the Toll Regulatory Board would reject outright the Ayala-SMIC proposal “because it will be in conflict to us.”
“There is material adverse government action to our concession…They will have to pay us damages…We will not do anything. We will wait for government to do something,” he said.
Ang said he was invited to join the Ayala-SMIC consortium for the unsolicited proposal, but asked for more time to study the proposal.
“I said I have to study. They should send me a proposal because this may be in conflict to our Naia Expressway which we have paid government an P11-billion premium,” he said.
“I said let’s check the alignment because there might conflict be conflict with our Naia Expressway or Skyway…For Skyway, we have an application from Buendia all the way to Macapagal Ave. pending with DPWH and TRB,” he said.
Ang said San Miguel was in talks with DPWH and TRB for the new Skyway project which the company submitted on March 9, 2017. “They accepted that. It’s not like I am reacting only today. We have been in talks about the alignment of this one,” Ang said.
The Skyway Buendia extension proposes to put up an elevated structure traversing Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, which will start at the Gil Puyat Interchange along Osmeña Highway and end at Diosdado Macapagal Blvd.
The extension offers seamless access to the Metro Manila Skyway for those coming from the western part of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.