Aquino to prioritize 3 toll road projects in Luzon

The Aquino administration is proritizing three toll road projects in Luzon which are "in their very advanced stage," Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said on Monday. These toll road projects include the Cavite-Laguna Expressway, the Central Luzon Expressway from Nueva Ecija to Nueva Vizcaya area and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Expressway from NAIA Terminal 3 area to the Coastal Road. In a Palace news briefing, Singson said he will present the projects to bankers who may be interested in financing them. Also, Singson said that he presented the ongoing study on potential toll roads within a 200-kilometer radius from Metro Manila to the contractors and the operators of toll roads last week. All seven toll operators were present at last week's meeting, he added. Singson said that during his meeting with the Philippine Contractors Association last week, he told its members that the government is "very interested to pursue public-private partnerships or PPPs" for road maintenance. Singson underscored that he wants to include in the construction contracts "a longer maintenance period" because at present "the construction warranty is one year after a new road is constructed and therefore we keep going back [to]repair those newly constructed roads because of poor quality to start with." "We want a PPP arrangement for road maintenance, meaning whether it is new or existing roads we are looking at how the private sector can undertake road maintenance," Singson said. —JE/OMG, GMANews.TV