PPP Center head resigns due to ‘family concerns’

MANILA — Cosette Canilao, the long-serving head of the Aquino administration’s Public Private Partnership Program, is resigning from her post effective March 8, 2016, due to “pressing family concerns.”

Canilao handed over her resignation last Jan. 27, 2016, ending five years as head of an agency that oversaw the awarding of least 12 PPP deals valued at over P200 billion, which included massive railway, airport, education and toll road projects. President Aquino accepted the resignation in a letter signed on Feb. 11, 2016.

Canilao’s departure casts uncertainty on the PPP Program’s broader initiatives, including a bill seeking to institutionalise many of its reforms, which has yet to pass the plenary in both Senate and the House of Representatives.

Reforms are needed given the role PPP projects play in bolstering infrastructure investments. Up for procurement right now are 14 PPP deals, which include big-ticket water, airport and transportation projects valued at about P556.6 billion, the PPP Center said.

In her letter to President Aquino, Canilao recommended lawyer Andre Palacios, a PPP Center consultant, as her successor.

“Serving the country as executive director of the Public Private Partnership Center under the stewardship of His Excellency’s office and cabinet has been the greatest privilege entrusted to me,” Canilao said in her letter.

“I am eternally grateful for the trust and support not only of His Excellency but also of the Cabinet secretaries I have worked closely with. It is with a heavy heart that I am resigning from my post due to pressing family concerns,” she added.

Canilao has cited gains made by the agency, and its international awards, noting, however, that reforms are far from over.

“There is a need for continuous adaptation and evolution as we roll out and implement more infrastructure projects. The leaderships and staff in PPP Centre are equipped and prepared to undertake the next steps,” Canilao said.

Three PPP projects have been finished thus far.

These are the Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway (MCX), or Daang Hari-SLEX Link Road, the Automatic Fare Collection System (unified ticketing for Light Rail Transit Line 1, Line 1 and Metro Rail Transit Line 3) and the  PPP for School Infrastructure Project Phase I.

Work has already started on other big-ticket projects that have been awarded, such as the P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu International Airport expansion and the P65-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 extension to Cavite province.

Canilao was appointed executive director of the PPP Center on Sept. 15, 2011.

At the time, Canilao was tapped for her more than two decades of experience in advisory as well as investment and corporate banking. She initially joined the government as a consultant of the National Economic and Development Authority for the PPP Center.

Canilao served as director of Standard Bank where she established and headed its distressed debt servicing business in the country. She was once a partner of the PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she headed the Crisis Management Practice and Financial Services Industry consulting.

Canilao holds a Masters in Finance degree from the University of the Philippines and underwent a a corporate restructuring program in Harvard Business School.  SFM