ADB's Continued Support for PPPs

Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched last Friday the Philippine Public-Private Partnership Monitor that explains how the Philippines has shaped its legal framework to streamline PPPs.

- MARIANNE GO

As pointed out in an interview during the launch with Rogelio Singson, who headed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) from 2010 to 2016 under former president Benigno Aquino III, the Philippines' experience in PPPs started way back in the 1990s.

Back then, PPP was known as the Build-Operate-Transfer or BOT program, with a BOT Law (Republic Act 6957) enacted on July 9, 1990 and later amended in May 1994.

Further amendments to the BOT law's implementing rules and regulations (IRR) were also made in 2012, which now form the basis for the PPP program.

The ADB helped the Philippines develop its PPP Code, which became a law in 2023, and its IRR issued in 2024.

From 1990 to 2023, about 305 PPP projects have been developed in sectors including roads, railways, airports, ports, energy, water and wastewater, ICT, agriculture and fisheries, social infrastructure and solid waste.

To date, the ADB has extended $19.3 billion in loans, grants and technical assistance for 682 projects.

During the launch at the ADB headquarters in Mandaluyong City, it was acknowledged that the Philippines has a well-developed national, sectoral and local PPP ecosystem.

However, the ADB cited the fact that the PPP program "still has a vast unrealized potential for private sector investments."

It thus cautioned that, "challenges remain which hinder PPP development, procurement and implementation."

The multilateral lending institution noted that the Philippine government has actively pursued efforts to address regulatory roadblocks to private sector investment in infrastructure, including lifting foreign ownership restrictions on certain sectors, enacting the PPP Code, and prioritizing bills to improve institutional arrangements and introducing reforms in key sectors such as water.