050107: DA backs GSIS's FTI plan

By Jun Vallecera

Reporter

AGRICULTURE Secretary Arthur Yap has no objections to a proposal by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to develop a portion of the 120-hectare Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) complex into an overhead access road that connects to the arterial C-5 highway. GSIS president and general manager Winston Garcia said in an interview that Yap initially consented to the plan that has also gathered support from Taguig City Mayor Freddie Tinga. Garcia said the GSIS is willing to commit a portion of its more than P200 billion in managed funds to an infrastructure development project that will benefit both FTI and the host local government unit. Under the plan, Garcia said the GSIS would help finance the construction of an overhead access ramp that will decongest traffic at the FTI complex. He has in mind a four-lane overhead interchange and access road to C-5 replacing an existing two-lane road leading to FTI proper that is considered too narrow for most of the facility’s agro-industrial tenants. “Secretary Yap was positive about this project and so was [Taguig City] Mayor Tinga,” Garcia told the BusinessMirror. He said he crafted the plan not out of the goodness of his heart but out of practical considerations. According to Garcia, building the infrastructure there would have tremendous commercial benefits to both the FTI tenants and their landlord, the government. Once completed, real-estate values in and around the FTI complex were certain to appreciate, benefiting the GSIS and millions of its members in the process. “Even if we were to finance the construction of the interchange, we could easily generate returns of some 300 or even 400 percent,” Garcia said. According to him, FTI has a bright future even if the government was not successful in privatizing the facility. He attributed the lack of appreciation of land values in the complex to the poor infrastructure, noting that investors cannot look forward to an upside. “But with an interchange declogging congestion, prices are certain to move up and privatization would become irrelevant,” Garcia said. A series of governments since 1986 crafted asset-sale plans involving FTI, none of them successful in attracting investors with a head for planning and asset management. Garcia said Secretary Yap vowed to “look closely at my proposal and return to me with an answer soon.”

 

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