The Philippine Justice department has shortlisted two teams for the Regional Prison Facilities PPP project.

The two bidders are the following:

• San Miguel Holdings Corp.
• Mega Structures Consortium: Megawide Construction Corp, Citicore-Megawide Consortium, Inc. and GMR Infrastructure.

DMCI Holdings, which also submitted qualification documents, did not compliant with the requirements to bid for the project.

A pre-bid conference is expected to be held on 20 July and shortlisted bidders will submit their proposals on 21 September. The project is expected to be operational by 2019.

The preferred bidder will design, finance, construct, and maintain during a 20-year period the prison facilities that will be constructed at the Philippine Army's Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija. The prison will have the capacity for 26,880 inmates. It will house 21,106 convicts from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City and 2,016 inmates from the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City, both of which are scheduled to be closed.

The project also involves the development of staff housing and administrative buildings, areas for rehabilitation (sports, work and religious activity), and will be installed with high security equipment. In addition the contract will include a number of building-related services such as laundry, waste treatment and disposal, sewage water treatment and power generation.

The total project investment is estimated at P50.2 billion (US$1.1 billion).

The prison will belong to the national prison system managed by the Bureau of Corrections under the Philippines Department of Justice. It is expected that the project will address the dire situation faced by existing penal facilities and create more humane prison conditions.