DOF mulls privatization of Crame, Aguinaldo

MANILA, Philippines –  Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima bared yesterday that the administration of President Aquino is contemplating on privatizing the headquarters of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Quezon City to further pump prime the economy.

In a briefing at Aquino’s New Year vin d’honneur at the Rizal Hall in Malacañang, Purisima told Palace reporters that privatizing Camp Crame of the PNP and Camp Aguinaldo of the AFP is one of the options they are thinking.

“Do we need these camps in the city? I’ve had discussions with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, and they’re all very supportive of the fact that Camps Aguinaldo and Crame should probably not be there,” he said.

Purisima said these are among the various assets the government has to help its Public-Private Partnership Program, where they urge local and foreign investors to help in providing infrastructure to the Filipino people.

“They (camps) should probably be re-developed in order to build a better and bigger site of a consolidated military facility, and modernize the armed forces and have funds. All these discussions are going on right now and are in preliminary stages,” he revealed.

This is part of the “comprehensive plan” the Aquino government is planning in its PPP projects, by way of “tapping the resources of the private sector so we use their expertise, their technology, their money, to build our infrastructure.”

“And at the same time continue to re-deploy the assets of the government that are idle or are not properly utilized. We are looking at all this,” Purisima stressed, noting idle lands of the penal colony, the Department of Health and many others.

“There are so many assets of the government, the DOH has 40 hectares in the middle of Cebu. The government has a lot of assets. That’s something I realized, we’ve been talking to each of the departments,” he said.

Others include the 343-hectare property of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, the 26,000-hectare Iwahig Penal Colony and the Davao Penal Colony.

“There are so many properties, what we need to is get together with all the departments and make an inventory of this and see how we can re-deploy these properties so that they are put to their best use,” he added.

“The best use may not be having government right there in which case, with the private sector, privatize it, use the proceeds to develop the property for best use so we have a win-win scenario,” Purisima stressed. –Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star)