SMC’s Bulacan airport proposal up for ICC review
SAN Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) unsolicited proposal for a P700-billion airport in Bulacan province will be up for review on Jan. 11 by the National Economic and Development Authority’s (NEDA) Investment Coordination Committee (ICC).
NEDA Undersecretary Rolando G. Tungpalan said that the airport will be among priority projects that the agency will be reviewing in the committee’s first meeting this year.
“The San Miguel Airport was discussed in the ICC-Technical Board; we asked DoTr (Department of Transportation) to submit additional information to enable us to validate some of the assumptions the DoTr submitted,” Mr. Tungpalan told reporters last week.
“We have a Jan. 11 ICC-Technical Board before that we would be able to ascertain whether it is ready, whether there is new information that would lead us to sharpen our analysis,” he added.
The airport project’s revenue model will be among the items to be evaluated.
“Certain assumptions need to be amplified, like vital to a decision point. Like revenue sources, for the project as a whole… unsolicited projects assume a certain rate of return. That will be the focus for a Swiss challenge,” Mr. Tungpalan said.
After passing the Technical Board, the proposal will go up the ICC-Cabinet Committee for further deliberation before going through the NEDA Board for the President’s approval.
After approval, the project will then undergo a Swiss challenge, under which competing bids are solicited from other parties who might top the original proposal. The original proponent is then entitled to match competing bids.
SMC has been granted original proponent status, according to DoTr Secretary Arthur P. Tugade.
The proposed airport in Bulacan involves a 2,500- hectare property with up to six runways, to be configured for about 100 million passengers a year.
Mr. Tungpalan said that if construction started in 2017, the project would have been completed “before the term of the President ends.”
It is one of at least two unsolicited proposals for a new airport outside Metro Manila but within surrounding provinces, as the government looks into establishing another gateway to decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
The other proposal is by All-Asia Resources & Reclamation Corp., the Tieng family’s team-up with Belle Corp., for a $50-billion airport and economic zone at Sangley Point in Cavite — which has yet to complete feasibility studies for ICC to review. —