The Philippines' Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has reiterated the government’s preference for “hybrid” public-private partnership (PPP) deals in which the government would build the infrastructure projects and later bid out the operation and maintenance (O&M) to the private sector.

Unsolicited proposals are also welcome from the private sector, which would have a better grasp at identifying potential problems and offering better solutions to prospective PPP projects.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said:

“There are several approaches to that. The first approach—and which we are most likely going to do—is we will do [the projects] ourselves first, and then most likely auction out or bid out the O&M. But that is the fastest way to do it. At least we get something going,”

He pointed out that a traditional PPP project usually takes an average of 29 months before it takes off, while unsolicited proposals would at least require a 20-month lead time. 

Undertaking the construction of PPP projects would prove cheaper in the long run, he said, considering that the government can borrow at lower rates through grants and concessional loans and later on harness the private sector’s expertise in  managing, operating and maintaining such infrastructure projects.   

The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Board approved last year 18 projects which are ongoing various stages of project development. “

The Duterte administration needs at least PHP8 trillion to close the infrastructure gap over the next six years. The government is financing its infra program through a mixture of soft loans, grants, official development assistance (ODA) and the PPP.  The "Build, Build, Build" agenda consists of big-ticket infra projects, among them the NLEX-SLEX Connector Road, the Bonifacio-Ortigas Road Link, Mindanao Railway, New Clark City, and the Mega Manila Subway.