However, project finance transactions continue to get done. Former President Ramos was popular with international investors and seen as a sound statesman and ecomomist. It is too early to say whether his successor, President Estrada, will engender similar confidence as regards international investment. However, this clarity is not always total and some aberrations are discussed below. The Philippines operates a structure not seen elsewhere in Asia, known as the Swiss challenge system.
Potential sponsors can propose a project without the government ever having solicited bids for it.
If the project is approved it is put up for bidding. The sponsor who suggested it has the right to match any counterbids that come in. The system has already found itself subject to litigation, however, from First Private Power Corp, over the award of a proposed hydropower plant to a competing bidder, Impsa.