It won’t fly

The bidder may have owned or have been the concessionaire for the airport for less than 10 years within the eligible period, as long as at least P10 billion

In the auction to rehabilitate the P170.6-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport, one of the bidders is a Consortium that included RMM Asian Logistics Inc. which holds a 30 percent stake and 10-percent partner Incheon International Airport Corp., the developer of the South Korean terminal.

Questions are being raised about this shadowy group for skirting requirements in the auction. Spelled out in the Instructions to bidders of the NAIA Public-Private Partnership project is the requirement that bidders must have Development and Operations and Maintenance Experiences (Section 2.2 - Technical Qualification Requirements).

Section 2.2.e(1) of the ITB (Development Experience) reads: The Bidder must have been an owner or concessionaire of an airport for which capital costs incurred was at least P10 billion or its peso equivalent, cumulative, in historical prices over the eligible period.

The bidder may have owned or have been the concessionaire for the airport for less than 10 years within the eligible period, as long as at least P10 billion in capital cost was incurred during the time the bidder owned or was the concessionaire for the airport.

However, the Securities and Exchange Commission records showed that RMM Asian Logistics Inc. submitted its incorporation papers only on 19 December 2023. In the SEC document, RMM Logistics only has P6.25 million in paid-up capital.

Why the company, with only a fraction of the capitalization required in the ITB, was allowed to bid on a P170-billion project is beyond our comprehension. Is there due diligence in scrutinizing its papers?

It seemed the company was exempted from a lot of issues. In addition, the prescriptions in the ITB do not seem to apply to RMM Asian Logistics or Raymond Miller Moreno because it does not fulfill any technical or financial eligibility requirements. The prohibition against unsatisfactory performance in the ITB, which covers involvement in any corrupt, fraudulent, undesirable, or restrictive, acts also does not apply.

Not a death sentence

Ready to fly, however, is what is heating the grapevine lately which is the possible acquisition of CNN Philippines by the Manuel V. Pangilinan group.

The free TV channel announced on its social media pages that it will discontinue operations on all media platforms effective yesterday.

After all, CNN will not be shutting down but even has the opportunity to beef up content and even add more channels.

It all depends on how the talks between the business top guns MVP and Ramon S. Ang pan out.