SMC group revives airport bid
San Miguel president Ramon S. Ang. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / LEO M. SABANGAN II
Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. has expressed interest to build a brand-new international airport using the unsolicited public-private partnership (PPP) route.
During the BDO Nomura infrastructure forum on Monday, SMC chief finance officer Ferdinand Constantino said the conglomerate was keen on submitting an unsolicited bid for a new airport.
“As a matter of fact, our president (Ramon S. Ang) has already brought to the attention of the government (that) we’re willing to put up a new airport,” Constantino said.
“It’s not necessarily only San Miguel. San Miguel can work with many parties to ensure that this will be a success,” he explained.
Constantino did not provide details on the proposed location of the new airport. In 2014, SMC submitted a proposal to the Aquino administration on a $10-billion international airport project along the Cyberbay reclamation area along Manila Bay.
“Soon, we hope that the government will make a decision,” he said.
PPPs undertaken through an unsolicited proposal route is still subjected to a Swiss challenge, which means the pricing mechanism will be tested by allowing other parties to submit better offers. However, the original proponent has the right to match the best offer submitted during the challenge.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who was also a panelist in the same BDO Nomura forum, indicated that the Duterte administration was receptive to unsolicited projects and was committed to building large-scale infrastructure and improving the capacity of implementing agencies to use their budgets “Use it or lose it,” he said, quoting President Duterte’s directive to government agencies.
During the forum, Constantino also talked about other ongoing projects of the San Miguel group, which are estimated to sum up to P205 billion.
The pipeline included the Naia (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) Expressway, which will connect all four terminals of the metro airport. The first phase of the project, from Skyway terminals 1 and 2 to Pagcor Entertainment City, has been completed. The other phase would be completed by the end of the year, he said.
The Naia Expressway project is a four-lane, 7.75-kilometer (km) elevated expressway and 2.22-km at-grade feeder road that will provide access to Naia Terminals I, II and III, and link the Skyway and the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway.
Constantino also mentioned SMC’s Boracay airport modernization project. To date, the runway in the Caticlan airport—a key gateway to Boracay Island—has been extended to accommodate larger aircraft while a new terminal is expected to be built within two years.
Another ongoing project is the P45-billion “Skyway stage 3” project that will connect the south and north Luzon expressways.
