B Puerto Princesa airport dev’t removed from package up for bidding

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has excluded the new Puerto Princesa airport in Palawan from the list of provincial airports that are being offered to investors in bundles under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

DOTC Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla announced the exclusion of the Puerto Princesa airport in the original bidding of six regional airports development, operations and maintenance projects, initially worth a total of R116.23 billion.

Excluding the R5.81- billion operation and maintenance contract for Puerto Princesa airport, the R20.26- billion Bacolod- Silay International Airport will be offered together with R30.4billion Iloilo International Airport under Bundle 1. Meanwhile, the R40.57- billion operation and maintenance contract for Davao International Airport will be offered together with R14.62- billion Laguindingan Airport and R4.57- billion New Bohol (Panglao) Airport under Bundle 2.

“Inclusion of the Puerto Princesa Airport in the bidding process is being held in abeyance until further notice. The Prequalification Bids and Awards Committee shall issue a bid bulletin before the Prequalification document submission date on the inclusion of the Puerto Princesa airport in the bidding process,” Lotilla said in a bid bulletin.

Under the indicative timeline for the project, bidders have to submit their qualification documents by May 18. Qualified bidders will be notified within five calendar days from the approval of prequalification evaluation results.

Deadline of submission of bid proposals, however, is yet to be announced but the issuance of notice to award is targeted by March, 2016, according to the DOTC and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) that are jointly bidding out the airport projects.

Under the proposed 30-year concession for the regional airports, the private sector partner will take over the operations and maintenance of the airports, undertake immediate expansion of the passenger terminal buildings, apron and other airside or landside facilities, and undertake capacity augmentation to cater to future demand throughout the contractual term.

However, air traffic control services (ATC), air navigation services (ANS) and operations and maintenance of the ATC and ANS facilities of the five airports will continue to be under the responsibility of CAAP.

The Puerto Princesa airport, construction of which is still on-going, is the country’s seventh busiest airport which boasts of tourist- driven passenger growth rate. According to the government, passenger traffic has been increasing at an average annual rate of 22.86 percent.

Due to the increasing passenger demand, the government has secured an official development assistance (ODA) loan from Korea to finance the construction of a new world-class international airport in Puerto Princesa. In 2014, Korea’s Kumho Industrial Co. Ltd.- GS Engineering & Construction Joint Venture (Kumho- GS) bagged the $ 82.9- million contract to design and build the facility, which is expected to be constructed by 2017.