By Henry Empeño | September 26, 2026

CLARK FREEPORT — The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) has opened the New Clark City (NCC) Water Supply and Wastewater Project for comparative proposals or Swiss challenge, setting the stage for a 90-day bidding process to challenge the original proponent for the P14.8-billion development venture.

In an advisory published on the website of the Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines on Friday, September 25, the BCDA invited interested parties to pre-qualify and bid against the original proposal from the consortium of Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-Water) and Maynila Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad), which gained Original Proponent Status (OPS) for the project last August 28.  

 

K-Water and Maynilad presented an unsolicited proposal on January 29 this year for the NCC Water Supply and Wastewater Project under a joint-venture agreement with a concession period of 25 years and subject to extension, the BCDA said.

The project aims to establish an efficient and modern water supply and wastewater facility at the NCC that meets international standards and improves water services in the area.

BCDA said the project includes the construction, operation and maintenance of non-public utility project assets by a joint venture (JV) special purpose corporation (SPC).

The JV-SPC will also construct public utility project assets to be leased out to a duly qualified firm for operation and management. The project assets will then be transferred to the government at the end of the concession period, BCDA added.

The Swiss challenge involves a 90-day, two-stage bidding process commencing from the issuance of the comparative challenge documents.

Under this scheme, each challenger will have to pre-qualify before being issued a request for comparative proposal.

The BCDA Pre-Qualification/Qualifications, Bids, and Awards Committee (PBAC) will first evaluate qualification documents to assess the challenger’s legal, technical, and financial qualifications to undertake the project.

Challengers who meet qualification requirements will then participate in the opening of technical proposals, and those passing the technical assessment will then join in the opening of the financial proposal.

The challenger submitting the lowest initial tariff for the first 12 months upon the start of the operation and maintenance period will be declared as the challenger with the most superior comparative proposal, the BCDA said.

With this, K-Water and Maynilad will be given the right to match or better the financial proposal of the most superior comparative proposal within 30 calendar days.

In case the BCDA PBAC determines the proposal of the original proponent to be superior or more advantageous to the government, or if there is no challenger, the PPP contract will be given to the original proponent.

The BCDA said interested parties may download and review instructions and comparative challenge documents from the official websites of BCDA and the PPP Center starting September 28.

Challengers may participate upon paying a non-refundable participation fee of P1 million.

BCDA has set the deadline for submission of qualification documents on October 20, 10:00 a.m., at the BCDA Corporate Office in Bonifacio Global City. ▲