Manila North Harbour to become an international port

Tycoon Ramon “RSA” Ang is excited about his partnership with fellow billionaire and ports tycoon Enrique Razon to redevelop the country’s biggest domestic port, the Manila North Harbour Port Inc.

The Manila North Harbour will become an international port with income projected to grow by two to three times, RSA said during last week’s annual stockholders meeting of San Miguel Corp.

“Napakaganda na ng takbo ngayon,” said RSA, president and COO of San Miguel.

Razon’s International Container Terminal Services Inc. gained a foothold in Manila North Harbour after acquiring Petron Corp.’s 34.83 percent interest in the port operator last year.

The deal involved the acquisition of 10.449 million shares of Manila North Harbour from Petron for P1.75 billion.

Aside from Petron, other major shareholders of the company include Petron’s parent company San Miguel, which owns 43.33 percent and the Romero family’s Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc.

Manila North Harbour’s 55-hectare port facility in Tondo, Manila can accommodate all types of vessels such as containerized and non-container type vessels.

SMC, in a separate article on its website, said more developments are in the pipeline for the modernization of Manila North Harbour, which is slated for completion by 2022.

Bulacan airport versus NAIA

From his seaport venture, RSA is also excited about his planned Bulacan airport, which he said would provide passengers a seamless airport experience.

For instance, RSA said the planned $15 billion airport, to rise on a massive 2,500-hectare shoreline property in Bulacan, would have 200 air bridges to accommodate 200 airplanes. On the other hand, he said the Ninoy Aquino International Airport could only have less than 50 air bridges.

He narrated how he had to wait for at least 45 minutes inside the airplane in NAIA last week after flying back from Malaysia.

“Before we could reach the terminal we waited for 45 minutes so the problem in NAIA now, it’s not only runway congestion, there’s also taxiway congestion,” RSA said.

There was also a time, he recalled, when he had to wait for seven hours before his plane could fly back to Manila from Cebu because of congestion at NAIA.

RSA believes these problems would be resolved, if and when, his Bulacan airport becomes a reality.

He is careful not to talk about the details yet, such as naming the technical partners and builders, but he promised that once he gets the go-signal from the government, he would reveal all the details to the public.

What RSA simply said is that the airport would have four terminals and enough space for two more terminals.

The capacity would be good for 100 million passengers, but scalable to 200 million passengers.

Last April, the National Economic and Development Authority Board gave the green light for the Bulacan airport project. But final approval may still be far ahead as there would still be negotiations with the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the project still needs to be subjected to a Swiss challenge.

RSA believes the Bulacan airport would still be viable even with a new and modern NAIA and the Clark International Airport running all at the same time.

Why is RSA not part of the NAIA Consortium?

Speaking of NAIA, RSA explained to shareholders why he did not join the NAIA Consortium.

He said long before the consortium was formed, he offered to rehabilitate NAIA and at the same time submitted the offer to build a new airport in Bulacan.

“We also submitted an offer to rehabilitate NAIA. We offered to repair it until such time that Bulacan is up and running,” he said.

But the DOTr told him to just focus on his Bulacan airport.

A well-wishers area at NAIA

As for the NAIA Consortium, Alliance Global Group Inc. CEO Kevin Tan trumpeted the plan for a new NAIA during the annual stockholders’ meeting of Megaworld Corp.

“We aim to improve not just the passenger experience, but also that of well-wishers,” Kevin said.

It may seem insignificant, but the consortium members are right in considering expanding the well-wishers area.

Filipino families, after all, are so tightly knit. There’s usually a whole barangay that sends off a departing family member.

Alliance Global is part of the seven conglomerates that form the NAIA Consortium.

Other members are the MVP Group’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), Aboitiz Group’s Aboitiz InfraCapital Incorporated, Ayala’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, Lucio Tan-led Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., the Gotianuns’ Filinvest Development Corp. and the Gokongwei Group’s JG Summit Holdings Incorporated.

Kevin said they would also expand the terminals, the retail areas, and do a major change in the layout of the terminals to make it more passenger-friendly.

Sounds promising. It’s now up to the Duterte administration to decide on these airport proposals – from Bulacan to Sangley to NAIA. But the government has to stop the bureaucratic thumb twiddling and decide soon.

Iris Gonzales’ e-mail address is eyesgonzales@gmail.com