DMCI Holdings Inc. on Thursday said it has qualified to bid for the Regional Prison Facilities project by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Bids and Awards Committee.
DMCI said in a statement that the DOJ committee reversed its earlier ruling that disqualified the company due to documentary deficiencies. The company then submitted a motion for reconsideration submitted by DM Consunji Inc.
“The DOJ made the declaration in a general bid bulletin dated August 5, 2015,” DMCI said.
According to the bulletin, the determination was reached after a thorough deliberation and re-evaluation of the prequalification documents submitted by DMCI Holdings, the company said.
Other qualified bidders were San Miguel Corp. and Mega Structure Consortium, a group of companies led by Megawide Construction Corp.
The DOJ’s project, called Regional Prison Facilities through the Aquino administration’s public-private partnership initiative, is the first of its kind in the country. It intends to become the new location of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa and the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong.
Both locations are on land destined for redevelopment. The two prisons cannot remain on their present locations. Executive Order 568, issued on September 8, 2006, by then-President Gloria Arroyo, instructs the DOJ to implement the transfer of New Bilibid Prison.
The P50.18-billion project will entail the construction and maintenance of a modern prison facility in a 500-hectare lot in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija.
“The proposed facility can accommodate 26,880 inmates, including staff housing and administrative buildings, areas for rehabilitation [sports, work and religious activity], and will be installed with high-security equipment,” the DOJ said.
The private partner will be responsible for the financing, detailed design and construction and maintenance of the prison facility. A number of supporting accommodation and building-related services may be outsourced as part of the PPP agreement, such as laundry, waste treatment and disposal, sewage-water treatment and power generation.
The deadline for the submission of bid proposals was set on September 29 and the opening of the technical proposals is a day after. The committee will give the award to the winning bidder in November.
