Clark airport awards ILS project to losing bidder

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – As the murder of its chief engineer remains unsolved, the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) board has decided to award the P250-million Instrument Landing System (ILS) project to a firm it earlier disqualified.

Scrapping its notice for re-bidding, the CIAC board said yesterday Evercon Builders and Equipment Corp. (Evercon) would be the contractor for the ILS project.

Evercon won the bidding in October last year, but the CIAC declared a failure of bidding and set a rebidding last Nov. 14, prompting Evercon to file a P1.2-million protest fee.

A source from the CIAC bids and awards committee said the recent breakdown of the distance measuring equipment (DME) of the ILS prompted the CIAC to award the contract to Evercon.

The DME relays to pilots data on an incoming aircraft’s distance from the runway.

The source said the other bidders admitted they could not meet the deadline set by the CIAC board for the rebidding of the project.

Meanwhile, Tarlac police chief Senior Superintendent Alex Sintin, head of the task group created to probe the killing of CIAC chief engineer Raul Angeles last Nov. 20, said investigators now have leads on the identity of the gunman, believed to be a hired killer.

Police sources said the murder of Angeles could be job-related.

Angeles’ department was in charge of crafting the terms of reference for various projects of Clark airport, including the ILS.