Recto: SSS, GSIS can buy SCTEx stake

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto. Photo from Department of Finance

THE government could sell its stake in the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) to state-owned pension funds instead of a private firm.

"Maybe the SSS (Social Security System) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) can buy them," Finance Secretary Ralph Recto told reporters on Tuesday.

"The government has a few shares, and I think it's better off that we sell those shares to raise revenue, non-tax revenue, and better if the pension funds buy from us," he added.

The revenue to be generated, Recto continued, will be "fairly significant."

Last week, Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) President Joshua Bingcang said that it could sell its 50-percent stake in the SCTEx to Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), which holds the concession to operate the tollway.

Finance Undersecretary Catherine Fong, however, said the government wanted the SSS and the GSIS to have first crack at the stake.

"If they can afford to hold it and sell it at a higher price later, then [it's a] win-win for everybody," she said in a Viber message.

"[W]e want them to be able to take advantage of it before they flip it," she added.

"We prefer it be offered to the pension funds first because if they can afford to buy and hold it, they will reap the dividends and the value for the benefit of the pensioners."

BCDA and MPTC officials were not immediately available for comment.