Senate OKs Bulacan airport franchise bill on 2nd reading

The planned international airport project in Bulacan province of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) is closer to getting a crucial permit after the Senate approved on second reading the bill granting San Miguel Aerocity Inc. a franchise to operate the facility and an adjacent airport city.

The Senate approved the bill late Monday night. It is planning to pass it on third reading later this week.

There were no objections to the measure on the floor.

San Miguel Aerocity’s franchise would be for 50 years and requires it to commence construction within one year from the effectivity of the measure.

The bill also exempts San Miguel from paying taxes emanating from the construction, development, establishment and operation of the airport and the airport city during the 10-year construction period.

After the construction period of the P734-billion airport project, the SMC subsidiary would be exempted from income and real property taxes until it has fully recovered its investment in the project.

When it has recovered its investment cost, it would be required to remit to the government any amount in excess of the 12 percent a year internal rate of return, which is the amount of income it is entitled to generate.

The second reading vote met some delay after Sen. Pia Cayetano complained that it was sidelining the interpellation on the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises or the Create bill, which she is sponsoring.

Cayetano said she was “envious” that the San Miguel franchise bill, sponsored by Sen. Grace Poe, had the support of their colleagues.

But Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the San Miguel franchise bill had to be approved on second reading on Monday as it had not been certified as urgent.

This means the three day rule between the franchise bill’s second and third reading approval must be observed.

If the franchise bill is not approved on third reading this week, there would not be enough time for a bicameral conference and the bill’s ratification before Congress goes on break, Sotto said.

Environment groups, however, slammed the hasty passage of the bill, underscoring anew the adverse impact of the project on the environment and on the communities that it threatens to displace.

“The haste by which the House of Representatives and the Senate fast-tracked its passage is most unfortunate,” Oceana Philippines vice president Gloria Estenzo-Ramos told the Inquirer.

“This reveals the lawmakers’ dismal failure to appreciate the ecosystem services that the fisheries and mangrove, wetlands and other habitats provide, especially as we are facing deepening poverty amid the health, biodiversity, fisheries and climate crises.” —WITH A REPORT FROM JHESSET O. ENANO INQ