Still no challengers for SMC’s Bulacan airport proposal

MANILA, Philippines — No company has yet to challenge San Miguel Corp.’s proposal to build a massive airport in Bulacan, but interested groups have been given more time by the Department of Transportation to submit better offers after adjustments were made in the project’s procurement schedule.

The STAR learned from the DOTr’s Bids and Awards Committee Secretariat that it has received any notice of challenge from other groups.

The DOTr published on April 12 an invitation to interested companies and groups to submit comparative proposals for the airport project that will rise in the province of Bulacan, a development which officially kicked off the bidding process for the project.

The agency, however, later on issued a revised invitation which gives potential bidders a longer time to submit their offers.

Under the new schedules, opening of bids is set on July 31 from the original schedule of June 23.

Interested companies or groups can submit their bids on or before July 31. The Swiss challenge documents will also be available up to the said date.

A pre-bid conference, which was earlier scheduled on May 9, is now set on June 20, according to the revised guidelines.

“The answer lies simply in the honest mistake of counting of days under the Build-Operate-and-Transfer Law,” said Transportation Assistant Secretary Goddess Libiran when asked on the reason behind the adjustments in the schedules.

“Our staff used the calendar day method instead of the working day method required under the BOT Law,” Libiran said.

Local and international companies are welcome to submit comparative proposals under a Swiss challenge bidding process to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the Bulacan airport project under a 50-year concession period.

A single-stage qualification and bidding would be undertaken for the project in accordance with the revised implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine BOT Law.

San Miguel Holdings Corp. has been given the original proponent status by the DOTr for its unsolicited proposal for the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the project dubbed as the New Manila International Airport.

The P754 billion airport proposal was approved by the NEDA in April last year.

The project aims to develop a new international gateway airport with air passenger terminal facilities with an ultimate design capacity of 100 million annual passengers, as well as airside facilities with an ultimate configuration of four parallel runways.