Gov’t to defer bid for P17-B Mactan-Cebu airport project
The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) again may postpone Friday’s bidding for the P17.5-billion project to expand and operate the Mactan-Cebu International Airport as the government focuses on dealing with the aftermath of Supertyphoon Yolanda, a senior government official said.
Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya said in a text message that a key meeting with the board of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) that was supposed to be chaired by President Aquino, was cancelled yesterday.
Among the topics to be discussed were revisions to the airport concession agreement, including government tax subsidies, that would make the project more appealing to the private sector.
“The [Neda meeting] was postponed because of Yolanda relief operations,” Abaya said.
He added that the auction, scheduled on Nov. 15, would “most likely” be delayed. This project has been postponed once before from its original Aug. 28 deadline.
The P17.5-billion rehabilitation, expansion and operation project includes the construction of a new world-class international passenger terminal building that can handle eight million passengers a year—double the Mactan-Cebu airport’s current capacity.
Among the revisions disclosed by the DOTC was the lengthening of the concession period from 20 years to 25 years and the transfer of “the liability for the payment of certain real property taxes to the government.”
Also covered was the “transfer of operations and maintenance of the aprons from grantors to the concessionaire,” including revenue rights and allowing flexibility on implementation of augmentation capacity.
The DOTC also increased the duration of the period for prohibiting the establishment of competing airports.
Mactan Cebu served 6.77 million passengers last year—way above its 4.5 million passenger capacity.
Earlier prequalified groups were MPIC-JGS Consortium, a venture between Manuel Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments and Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings; AAA Airport Partners, a venture between Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures; Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp.; San Miguel Corp.; Lopez-led First Philippine Holdings; Henry Sy’s Premier Airport Group and Megawide Construction Corp.
