Too many unanswered questions in Sangley Airport project

BACK in January 30, Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo was asked by the media if the Duterte administration was looking into complaints that the bidding process and subsequent contract award for the Sangley Airport project favored a Chinese builder with a dubious reputation. Panelo’s response, which was probably intended to sound reassuring, was instead dismissive.

“If the Chinese company has complied with all the bidding requirements unlike others, then necessarily the Chinese company will be the chosen one,” Panelo said. “The presumption is it is aboveboard — lest you give us proof that it is not, then we come in.”

At a time when several government agencies are applying considerable energies toward reviewing government contracts, whether there is any “proof” beforehand that they are anomalous, the official response to the issue of the Sangley project is not just disdainful, but asinine. There are far too many unanswered questions to presume the proposed $10-billion project is aboveboard in any respect.

The conversion of the Danilo Atienza Airbase at Sangley Point, located at the bayward end of the Cavite City peninsula, into a useful airport has been considered for years, but the site is generally considered to have more disadvantages than benefits. In June of last year, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Department of Transportation ( DoTr) to prepare the airport to handle general aviation traffic, so that part of the burden at the badly overcrowded Ninoy Aquino International Airport could be relieved. The DoTr found a tool in the provincial government of Cavite, which has set itself up as the proponent and lead agency for the Sangley International Airport under a public- private partnership ( PPP) scheme.

From the very beginning, there were flags, beginning with Cavite Gov. Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla’s claim that at least five major developers — SM was one of them — had submitted proposals when in fact, some of those he named pointedly denied having any interest in the project, while others diplomatically avoided answering the question. Apart from that, interested bidders were given only about two months to prepare their materials; Lucio Tan’s MacroAsia, half of the partnership with the “Chinese company” that was the only bidder for the project, announced it had bought bid documents in mid-November.

The bid was awarded to MacroAsia and its “Chinese company” partner just before Christmas, with groundbreaking originally planned for mid-January and limited operations beginning by the 15th of this month. That schedule, however, was derailed by the January 12 eruption of the Taal Volcano, and, a new timeline has yet to be established. In the meantime, the provincial government of Cavite has said it is “reviewing” the contract, though it has also been quick to point out that as far as is concerned, there is nothing untoward in the result of the accelerated procurement process.

The reason the national government was not involved from the outset is that PPP projects at the local government level are not subject to review by the National Economic and Development Authority board. The Sangley Airport project, however, is of a scale and nature that it clearly does have national significance. With all due respect to the provincial government of Cavite, a $10-billion international airport project, which is planned to have an annual passenger capacity of 100 million and will involve the reclamation of about 1,500 hectares of land from Manila Bay, should not be left in local hands.

Especially not when there are so many unanswered questions about it, one of which is the wisdom of awarding the project to the particular “Chinese company” involved — The China Construction and Communication Co., or CCCC. The Chinese Company is the largest builder of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and one of its subsidiaries, CCCC Dredging, is reportedly the world’s largest dredging company.

The CCCC has also been associated with the construction of China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), and for eight years, from 2009 to 2017, the company was blacklisted by the World Bank “for fraudulent practices under Phase 1 of the Philippines National Roads Improvement and Management Project.”

Even with all these questionable developments, it is possible that the Sangley Airport contract is entirely reasonable and “aboveboard.” But only a fool would assume it is without a very careful review. The national government needs to step in and carry out such a review now.