Filinvest Studies Bid for Railway PPP

The Filinvest Group of the Gotianun family said it is considering a potential bid for the government’s biggest public-private partnership (PPP) contract to date, the P170.7-billion South Line of the North-South Railway Project (NSRP).

“We might look at it,” Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) Director Joseph M. Yap said in an interview last week, but declined to elaborate. FLI is the real estate arm of Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), the holding firm for the Gotianun family’s businesses.

Entering a bid for the multibillion railway contract would be the Gotianun group’s another attempt to corner a PPP project. It was shortlisted for two PPP contracts — the upgrade of the Mactan International Airport and the construction of an integrated transport hub in southern Metro Manila — but lost both deals to a consortium led by Megawide Construction Corp.

The NSRP South Line will again bring Filinvest in a face-off with Megawide, which on July 15 had said it is also interested in the contract. They will compete
with other perennial contenders for PPP projects — Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

The winning bidder of the biggest railway project of the government will design, construct, install, commission, finance, operate, and maintain the 56-kilometer (km.) commuter rail from Tutuban to Calamba, Laguna, as well as the 478-km. long-haul rail from Tutuban to Legazpi, Albay, according to an invitation to bid published two weeks ago.

The long-haul line has two possible extensions: 58 km. from Calamba, Laguna to Batangas City and 117 km. from Legazpi to Matnog, Sorsogon.