No deal yet on Naia-3 rehab

There is still no deal between the government and Japanese contractor Takenaka Corp. for the long-delayed rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3, a transportation department official said on Monday.

Transportation Undersecretary for legal Jose Perpetuo Lotilla said the agency did not meet its goal of signing on July 15 the P1.9-billion construction work agreement with the Japanese contractor because government lawyers were still reviewing the contract.

“We don’t know yet the final date of signing. Hopefully within the next few days,” Lotilla told reporters.

The DOTC wants to address the structural issues at Naia Terminal 3 to bring the facility to full operations by the first quarter of 2014.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya said Naia Terminal 3, which opened in 2008 after being mothballed for six years, was operating at only half of its intended capacity of 13 million passengers a year.

Lotilla, meanwhile, noted that the Office of the Solicitor General was still reviewing the “fine prints” of the contract with Takaneka, which had already conveyed its interest to proceed with the rehabilitation project.

The issue, he said, was further complicated by the case filed by German firm Fraport AG, a shareholder of Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc., which won the right to build and operate the airport in a deal that was later declared illegal by the Arroyo administration.

While the government won the case filed by Piatco in Singapore, a case filed in 2011 by Fraport against the Philippine government in the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington, D.C., is still pending.

“Remember that the case is ongoing,” Lotilla said. “In any step that we have to take we have to consider that case and make sure it does not create any complications.”