By Lilybeth G. Ison
MANILA, Jan. 6 (PNA) -- With the series of increases in utility costs, including the use of Metro Manila's light rail mass transport and its expressway system, a party-list lawmaker on Thursday recommended a review on existing laws on privatization, build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme and other related arrangements between the government and the private sector to ensure that public interest remains as the overriding consideration in future Private Public Partnership (PPP) deals especially on projects that involve public utility services.
"Public welfare should not be sacrificed in exchange for capital investments. The government should exercise caution on its future privatization plans and Private Public Partnership arrangements and see to it that public interest is fully protected," said Ang Kasangga party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco.
Haresco, vice-chair of the committee on small business and entrepreneurship development of the House of Representatives, said that although critical services which are now in the hands of the private sector such as water, electricity and even expressway management have improved in terms of quality and efficiency, public utility companies are rushing too much in their bid to recover their investment costs and immediately rake in profit.
"That's the problem in allowing the private sector to run key public utility services because while they are more efficient, private companies are doing business purely for profit, in which case, public welfare is completely set aside. This is something that the government should consider before entering into privatization and PPP arrangements on projects that have direct public impact," he said, noting that the PPP is just a revised tag for the BOT scheme which he helped conceptualize.
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