Four out of the nine firms that initially expressed interest in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP) Phase II project prequalified to bid for the project last week.

The four firms are the following:

• Megawide Corp.,
• BF Corporation,
• DM Wenceslao & Associates, and
• Vicente T. Lao Constructors/BSP & Co. Inc.

The PSIP Phase II project involves the designing, financing and constructing of 10,679 classrooms, including furniture, fixtures and toilets in a total of 5,033 public schools nationwide. The contractor has to complete the project in a span of 14 months.

The agency chose eight schools in Pampanga as mock-up sites, so each of the four firms chose two sites where they will build four mock-up classrooms.

According to an executive of the PPP Center, the firms must be able to finish their mock-classrooms before the technical and financial bidding for the project scheduled on June 17. On August 7, the notice of award will be issued to the winning bidder and on August 26, the agreement will be signed by the government and its partner from the private sector.

In a statement, DepEd Undersecretary of Finance & Administration Francisco Varela said it is likely that there will be more than one winner for the PSIP Phase II project, just like in Phase I where contracts were awarded to Citicore Holdings Investment, Inc.-Megawide Construction Corp., Inc. and BF Corp.-Riverbanks Development Corp.

This second phase has five packages, wherein Luzon and Mindanao get two packages each and Visayas gets one package.

Source: PPP Center