Top conglomerates favor bid for NAIA upgrade

Some of the country’s biggest conglomerates are eyeing to bid for the P74.6-billion upgrade of the bustling Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) instead of joining proponents of a totally new gateway, top company officials said in separate interviews.

Ayala Corp., the nation’s oldest conglomerate, said it would rather join the bidding for the NAIA upgrade under the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) program than join a team that would build a new airport in Cavite or Bulacan as proposed by the Tieng Group and San Miguel Corp., respectively.

In a recent interview, Ayala Corp. managing director Jose Rene Almendras said joining the development of a new airport would take too much time.

“Bulacan and Sangley (will take) 10 years from now. How soon can you build that airport? We will focus on NAIA to extend the life of NAIA,” Almendras said.

SMC president Ramon Ang has proposed to build a $10-billion airport in Bulacan while the Tieng family, together with Henry Sy’s Belle Corp., proposed to develop the Philippine Global Gateway project, a $50 billion airport and seaport development off Sangley Point in Cavite.

Both groups are open to take in partners for their respective unsolicited proposals but the Duterte administration has yet to decide on the two submissions.

In an interview, SM Prime Holdings Inc. executive committee head Hans Sy said they are willing to invite partners for their project but only after securing government approval.

However, some groups would rather focus on the NAIA upgrade.

Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), the Cebu- based conglomerate, said it is also more interested in bidding for the NAIA makeover instead of joining the groups planning to build a new airport.

“We haven’t looked at the unsolicited proposals. We’re focused on the PPPs, which are mostly solicited bids — the five airports and NAIA, we’ll also bid for that,” AEV president and CEO Erramon Aboitiz said.

He also said while AEV is open to the possibility of joining proposals to build a new airport, they haven’t really talked to anybody yet.

Similarly, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. ( MPIC), the infrastructure and tollroads conglomerate chaired by corporate tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, is also lukewarm to the prospect of building a new airport.

MP I C president and CEO Jose Ma. K. Lim said they are interested to bid for the NAIA upgrade as well as the five regional airports and not yet on the unsolicited proposals as they are still waiting for the rules that would govern such projects.

The Duterte administration, which has vowed to usher in the so- called golden age of infrastructure, has opened the market to unsolicited bids for the country’s various big-ticket requirements — roads, bridges, airports, among others.

The government’s NAIA Development Project under the PPP program includes operation and maintenance, with a 15- to 20- year concession agreement targeted to be signed in 2017.

Lucio Tan-led Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp. (AEDC) and engineering conglomerate Megawide Construction Corp. have also expressed interest in joining the bidding for the NAIA upgrade.