DAVAO CITY – A party list lawmaker is fighting tooth and nail to impede a passage of a bill institutionalizing the government’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, saying the measure would give more freedom for concessionaires to charge consumers of higher toll rates.
Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Neri Colmenares said they would appeal before the Supreme Court in case House Bill 6331 gets approval at the Congress and Senate.
“The PPP law (HB 6331) will institutionalize sovereign guarantee thru the viability gap fund and billions of public funds will be given to private companies to ensure their super profits. This will privatize government services and will result in expensive rates in toll ways, MRT and LRT fares, even hospitals, which are subject to the government’s private-partnership program,” he said.
On Monday, February 1, majority of the representatives at the Lower House approved the bill on third and final reading, except for Colmenares and seven other lawmakers.
Colmenares said billions of public funds will also be taken away instead of funding people’s needs as private corporations can get exemptions from taxes, including local taxes.
“The P2000 Social Security System (SSS) pension increase will result in a P4 billion annual deficit according to SSS itself during the hearings, but the government refused to subsidize this. Pres. Aquino has billions for big companies but not a single cent for the pensioners,” he added.
Colmenares also said the bill will centralize the authority in Malacañang through the automatic grant of permits licenses and franchises deemed important by the President.
“I hope the Senate will not allow this horrible law to pass otherwise the people will be constrained to go to the Supreme Court to stop the PPP bill,” he said.
The bill, which was certified as urgent in December 2015 by President Benigno Aquino III, seeks to make the PPP scheme permanent.
The government partners with the private sector in constructing public infrastructure and development projects through the said scheme.
Among the PPP projects being rolled out under the Aquino administration include the modernization of Davao Sasa Port. (davaotoday.com)
