A presumably-forgotten public-private partnership (PPP) project won by property giant Ayala Land Inc. during the Aquino administration could soon be revived after the Department of Transportation resolved a nearly decade-long impasse.
The P4 billion Taguig Integrated Terminal Exchange (ITX) was stalled since 2016 due to a right-of-way issue that prevented San Miguel Corp.’s massive Southeast Metro Manila Expressway (SEMME) C-6 from connecting to the PPP project.
This was a condition before the Taguig ITX, also known as the South Integrated Transport System project, could proceed with construction.
Long wait
“We are very close to closing an agreement for the SEMME C-6 so that can move forward and so we can move forward with the Taguig ITX,” Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John Batan said in a recent interview.
“The reason why it needs the SEMME C-6 is because the on-ramp, off-ramp—the accessibility of the Taguig ITX—is via the SEMME C-6,” he added.
A source with knowledge of the matter told InsiderPH that Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista helped solve the impasse, which involved a property owned by the Veterans Foundation, which is supervised by the Department of National Defense.
Right-of-way agreement
The source explained that previous attempts to secure the property, including via land expropriation, were not successful.
Current discussions include a right-of-way agreement which involves the payment of annual fees.
Ayala Land won the Taguig ITX after offering to undertake the project with the lowest annual payments from the government.
Ayala Land will be entitled to annual payments of P277.9 million during the 35-year concession period, subject to certain key performance indicators under the concession agreement.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
