SMC-led group to maintain and operate NAIA in the next 15 years
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) awarded a 15-year operations and maintenance project to rehabilitate Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to a San Miguel Corp. (SMC) led consortium on Friday.
In a press conference, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said "the pre-qualification bids and award committee completed the evaluation and made their recommendation" on Thursday night while it "was approved by the board of Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA)" on Friday.
"Today we are pleased to announce that we will award this project to the winning bidder, the SMC SAP group. It required a lot of hard work for the technical working group of the (Department of Transportation) DOTr and MIAA with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB)," he said.
Bautista said the modernization of NAIA may start after three to six months.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, in a statement, said this is the largest solicited public-private partnership under the Marcos administration.
After 30 years in the making, said Recto, the airport will no longer operate beyond capacity. He said this has led to ''poor service and passenger convenience.''
"We made the notice of award today. We're expecting to sign the concession agreement within the next 30 days and when we sign the concession agreement the winning bidder will have to pay the ... 30 billion pesos and were given 3 to 6 months to do the financial... because there is a need also for the winning bidders to arrange all the financing," Bautista said.
"Maybe it will take 3 months to 6 months but we will try our best to do it as soon as possible so that we can start the operations and maintenance of this project by the private sector," he added.
Bautista stressed that "the privatization of the operations and maintenance of the NAIA was conceptualized as early as 30 years ago when the government of then President Fidel Ramos started the privatization of the terminal three, unfortunately it ended up in court and in early 2000 it was taken over by the government".
"So 30 years in the making and now we will be able to privatize the operations and maintenance of the MIAA," he said.
Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John Batan emphasized that this project is the fastest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project of the Philippine government which only took 12 months for the process.
"This process is one of, if not a fastest solicited PPP project of the Philippine government, prior to this it was 18 months for the (Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway (MCX) PPP project, from Feb to Feb, 12 months this is going to be one of the fastest in the Philippine PPP (history)," he said.
Bautista noted that the government agencies worked really hard to immediately implement the project which was also supported by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
"Maybe one of the reasons why it is one of the fastest because we really work hard, the DOTR, MIAA, the PPP center, Department of Finance (DOF), (National Economic and Development Authority) NEDA really work hard to see to it that these are implemented the fastest possible time because we think that this a very important project," he said.
"The President supports this project and I think this is one of the reasons why everybody works hard and gives focus so that we can complete this in a very short period of time," he added.
In a statement, SMC SAP and Co Consortium, composed of San Miguel Corporation, RMN Asian Logistics, RLW Aviation, and Incheon International Airport Corp., said that their "proposal is designed not only to elevate NAIA to world-class standards but also to ensure that the government benefits from the most advantageous revenue-sharing agreement".
"This aims to secure a favorable outcome for our shareholders while prioritizing fairness and long-term sustainability over immediate profits," it stated.
"Recognizing the weight of the responsibility entrusted to us, we are committed to collaborating closely with the government and our various stakeholders, harnessing every resource available to us, to transform NAIA into a modern international gateway that Filipinos will be proud of," it added. Robina Asido/DMS
