Gov’t not worried with withdrawal of two firms in NAIA rehab project

July 8, 2020

The government on Wednesday said it is not worried about the withdrawal of two conglomerates to upgrade and rehabilitate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

In a virtual press briefing after the Pre-SONA Forum, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the Department of Transportation is talking to two potential proponents.

“These two other proponents are willing to get into agreement with the government which are very similar to the terms of agreement with Clark airport,” Dominguez said.

“We’re not worried about it. We believe these other two proponents step up to the plate here,” he added.

Dominguez did not disclose who the two potential proponents are.

Cosette Canilao, chief operating officer of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., one of the members of NAIA Consortium, said the group is no longer interested to pursue the project.

The P102-billion NAIA rehabilitation project was proposed by NAIA Consortium composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc, AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp. and JG Summit Holdings Inc.

Metro Pacific Investments Corp. earlier backed out from the consortium over unresolved issues with the government.

The NAIA Consortium sent a letter to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) last July 6 saying they are not confident to push through with  the project.

Megawide Construction Corp. and partner India-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd.,  submitted proposals to  upgrade NAIA for $3 billion and a contract period of 18 years.

Megawide-GMR built the new Mactan terminal facility. DMS