The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is well on its way to becoming a modern, world-class gateway.
Just recently, the New NAIA Infrastructure Corp. (NNIC), the private consortium operating NAIA on behalf of the government, opened its brand-new Mezzanine Food Hall at Terminal 3, a 6,000-square-meter dining hub, as part of its effort to make traveling through NAIA more comfortable and convenient for passengers.
We would not have seen this kind of improvement if NAIA had still been operated by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA).
Since the operation and rehabilitation of NAIA were turned over to the private sector in September 2024, the airport has undergone extensive upgrades – new power and air-conditioning systems, rehabilitated drainage and cleaned waterways that have eliminated flooding, upgraded lighting and Wi-Fi, improved immigration queuing, a centralized TNVS hub, automated parking, new escalators and walkalators, X-ray units and CCTV systems, wider curbsides and more parking spaces, the ongoing construction of Terminals 4 and 5 to expand capacity and reduce congestion, a new OFW lounge, and soon the roll-out of a new biometric passenger processing system.
And all these at no cost to the government.
NNIC won in what has been described as the most transparent and competitively bidded public-private partnership (PPP) agreement, with the group winning the bid by offering the highest revenue share to the government of 82.16 percent, compared to the other bids (GMR at 33.3 percent and MIAC at 25.91 percent).
NNIC has already invested P3.25 billion in upgrades as part of a P72-billion, five-year modernization plan and has remitted P57 billion to the government in the first year and an estimated P911 billion over the 25-year concession period.
In spite of all these, there is this group called the Pagkakaisa ng mga Users, Stakeholders at Obrero ng NAIA (PUSO ng NAIA) that wants the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to investigate this P1.5-trillion PPP between the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and NNIC.
Acting Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez has emphasized that since there are no public funds that were disbursed and there is no misuse of funds relating to flood control or other infrastructure, this is not a matter within the scope of the ICI’s job. “On the contrary, they (NNIC) are the ones who give money to the government,” he said.
But what is really the motivation behind PUSO ng NAIA’s move?
It claims to be composed of NAIA workers, but the Samahang Manggagawa sa Paliparan ng Pilipinas (SMPP), the duly recognized labor union of the MIAA, has categorically denied any involvement in any actions being conducted by interest groups like PUSO ng NAIA.
PUSO ng NAIA has also filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking that the concession agreement with NNIC be declared unconstitutional.
So who is actually behind all this hate campaign against NNIC and the NAIA concession agreement?
Some say one locator at NAIA continues to object to the increased lease rates implemented by NNIC with the approval of MIAA, even though that locator has benefited for many years from the dirt-cheap rates given by the previous management. While all the other locators have already agreed to the increased rates, which are still low at P710 per square meter, this particular locator, which is leasing around 22.6 hectares, still does not want to pay the new rates.
Could this locator be behind all this noise?
Better days for mining
For some investors, doing business in the Philippines is still proving to be extremely difficult. Take the case of Woggle Corp., an affiliate of FCF Minerals Corp., which was recently granted an exploration permit by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for its project covering over 3,100 hectares in five barangays in Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya. Woggle is a unit of UK-based Metals Exploration.
In spite of the government having mandated the undertaking of mineral exploration activities, anti-mining protesters have prevented the company’s workers from entering the exploration area on several occasions by setting up barricades.
Woggle went to court and succeeded in getting a 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) against the protesters.
A Nueva Vizcaya court ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the sheriff to fully implement the TRO and directed the arrest of any person who disobeys, obstructs or resists the implementation of the order.
FCF Minerals, which began gold production in 2016 at its Runruno Gold Project in Quezon, Nueva Vizcaya, was a recipient of the Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Award for Surface Mining Operations.
It is said that three politicians who lost in the May 2025 elections instigated the anti-mining campaign and have used the mining controversy and members of the community to wage a hate campaign against a freshman lawmaker.
Residents, however, claim that Woggle started exploration activities without conducting proper consultation with the communities. They said that the province is a critical watershed, being the source of major river systems like the Cagayan and Magat that bring water to the Cagayan Valley.
They have protested in the past against the operations of large-scale mining companies, including the gold-copper mine of OceanaGold in Barangay Didipio in Kasibu and the gold-molybdenum venture of FCF in Barangay Runruno in Quezon, also in Nueva Vizcaya.
According to one newspaper report, Nueva Vizcaya has 44 percent of Cagayan Valley’s mineral resources, including limestone, manganese, gold and copper, which are mined in several tenements covering over 350,000 hectares as of 2018.
The same news report said that the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Nueva Vizcaya Chapter has signed a resolution expressing strong opposition to all pending and future applications for both exploration and mining activities in the province.
The same story is, of course, happening in other parts of the country, as there are those who still insist that mining, being an extractive industry, is bad for the environment.
No less than the President has commended the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines for adopting the Towards Sustainable Mining Program, which is a global benchmark for environmental, social and governance standards, making the Philippines the first in Asia to do so.
The DENR has also given assurances that its policies align with the administration’s call for a modern framework that attracts responsible capital while ensuring environmental protection.
Environmental protection can go hand in hand with sustainable and socially responsible mining. While it is true that resources that are mined are gone forever, sustainable and responsible mining enables operations that lower the environmental and social impacts of mining activities while maximizing economic benefits and respecting stakeholders’ rights.
The Philippines is the fifth most mineralized country in the world. Unfortunately, the mining industry’s potential still remains largely untapped. New technologies are spurring demand for nickel and lithium and we cannot afford to miss out on this great opportunity that can propel our country’s economic growth while still saying no to irresponsible mining.