DOTr to act on NAIA Consortium rehab proposal within 2 weeks

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) may decide within two weeks if it would grant original proponent status (OPS) to the group of seven conglomerates which offered to rehabilitate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade told reporters on the sidelines of the Asia CEO Forum held yesterday the agency would decide within two weeks whether it would give OPS to the NAIA Consortium.

If the NAIA Consortium composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. gets the OPS, it would have the right to match the offers via a Swiss challenge.

Earlier this week, Transport Undersecretary Manuel Antonio Tamayo said the NAIA Consortium submitted a revised offer to upgrade NAIA at a cost of around P106 billion and shorter concession period of 15 years.

“We have received it. It was changed from 35 years to 15 years. Is it acceptable? There are still discussions on that,” Tugade said.

The NAIA Consortium revised its offer to take into account the preference of the DOTr based on discussions held earlier on the initial proposal submitted by the group.

Under the P350 billion proposal covering a 35-year concession period submitted by the group in February, the NAIA upgrade would be undertaken in two phases, with Phase 1 involving improvements and expanding the terminals in the current land area to hike annual capacity to 65 million passengers, and Phase 2 covering additional runway, taxiways, passenger terminals and associated support infrastructure.

There is also an option to build a third runway.

Earlier, Tugade said the 35-year concession period is too long with NAIA seen to be viable for only 10 more years given expected technological advancements and further congestion at the main gateway.

“If you are able to develop the airport in 35 years, there may be no need for NAIA,” he said.