Slow but steady

Roman history tells us that “experience is the best teacher.”

To some, it’s a cliché but this timehonored proverb sums up the thinking of authorities on the inevitability of constructing an alternative gateway to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). On hindsight, maybe it’s fated that we have to experience the Xiamen Airways mess at the NAIA last August 16 to jolt, the government to the need for a new premier gateway to the country.

Representatives of San Miguel Corporation and officials of concerned government agencies, with the Department of Transportation at the helm, are now discussing the terms of a “concession agreement,” on a New Manila International Airport (NMIA) proposed by the food conglomerate in Bulacan. The initial meeting was held Thursday last week, nearly four months after San Miguel passed the first hurdle. The inter-agency Investment Coordinating Council and the National Economic and Development Authority gave their go signal for San Miguel’s unsolicited proposal April this year.

The right combination may be difficult to find but the authorities and San Miguel must be on the same page. Reaching a deal on the concession agreement and the attendant terms of reference (TOR) is the second step before the project can be subjected to Swiss Challenge, where other parties are invited to make an offer to match or even surpass SMC’s proposal. The TOR and fine print of the concession agreement include the length San Miguel will be allowed to operate the gateway, the auxillary services, all of which will be disclosed to other interested parties participating in the Swiss Challenge.

Armed with a healthy bottomline, San Miguel is raring to face the challenge. No sovereign funding nor government guarantee is required as provided in the buIld-operatetransfer law as amended, unsolicited project proponent have the right to match the proposal of contending parties under the Swiss Challenge.

The importance of the meeting of minds on the concession agreement and the TOR cannot be over emphasized.

Based on San Miguel’s comprehensive study NAIA is currently operating well over its capacity. The two runways are “overstretched.” But the domestic economy is expanding, airline passenger traffic, including tourist arrivals, is projected to grow “exponentially” moving. Among its regional peers, the Philippines is in the bottom pit with Japan’s TokyoHaneda on top, followed by Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea (Incheon), and Malaysia. Thus, it is essential and crucial that we have an alternative premier gateway.

San Miguel is proposing to build a state-of-the-art NMIA on a spacious 2,500 hectare land it owns in Bulakan, Bulacan. Getting there from north, east, west, and south and the train loop will make travel a breeze. I am imagining Hong Kong International Airport.

Initially, there will be four runways that could accommodate-get this- 60 aircraft movements per runway per hour. A provision to construct additional two runways is included in the masterplan. San Miguel envisions NMIA will be completed within six years.

Insiders "gestimate" the awarding of the contract could be sometime mid-2019. I can just picture the flurry of economic activities that would turn this otherwise idle, non-performing real property into a state-of-the-art international gateway.

Talk back to me at sionil731@ gmail.com