San Miguel president Ramon S. Ang (inset) said SMC would make another pitch for a $10-B airport to be built in reclaimed land in Manila Bay. INQUIRER FILE / LEO M. SABANGAN II
CONGLOMERATE San Miguel Corp. (SMC) will revive its massive Manila Bay international airport proposal to the incoming Duterte administration to solve air congestion and signal the Philippines is serious about boosting tourism and trade.
SMC president Ramon S. Ang said the plan would showcase a world-class international airport, earlier estimated to cost $10 billion but could be built for less, as well as a possible, unprecedented alliance with the country’s biggest conglomerates that would include Manuel V. Pangilinan’s group, Henry Sy’s SM Group and Zobel-led Ayala Corp.
SMC’s proposed airport would eventually replace the old Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila that is now operating beyond its intended capacity. The new airport would sit on 1,600 hectares of mainly reclaimed land in Manila Bay and was proposed two years ago to the outgoing Aquino administration.
SMC was careful not to offer to build the project due to the current administration’s bias against unsolicited proposals and instead shared plans for a potential public bidding. Even then, the project never materialized.
“I’m being invited to propose again,” Ang told the Inquirer. “So I’ll do this and will ask them to call for a public bidding. I’ll present all the designs.”
“If San Miguel is allowed to do the airport I will invite Manny Pangilinan, and Ayala and Shoemart (SM Group). All of them are welcome to be partners,” Ang added. “But as the major partner, I will invite Manny Pangilnan.”
In the last two years, the Department of Transportation and Communications tapped the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) to find a suitable location for a new international gateway. Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya said on Friday that a Jica-backed feasibility study for Sangley Point in Cavite was still being finalized.
These new locations are being explored because the existing alternative, the Clark International Airport in Pampanga province, was deemed too far for most Metro Manila residents since it lacked efficient mass transportation access.
“There’s really no other choice,” Ang said. He said Sangley could cost up to $20 billion to build, while SMC’s Manila Bay airport would require an equity of about $2 billion to $3 billion.
“We have experience to do the reclamation. We have dredging machines, everything is complete,” Ang added.
San Miguel already operates the Caticlan Airport near Boracy Island. In 2014, it made an unsuccessful bid for the Mactan Cebu International Airport with partner Incheon Airport of South Korea. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp., the SM group and Ayala also bid for the Cebu Airport public-private partnership (PPP) project that was eventually won by Filipino company Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure.
Jose Ma. K. Lim, president of Metro Pacific, said they were open to SMC’s offer. “We have expressed interest in bidding for airports so if the government decision is to adopt RSA’s (Ang’s) proposal, we would consider it,” Lim said in a text message.