PPP Center eyes early opening of bids for Mactan airport deal

The anticipated opening of the financial bids for the P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu International Airport could be moved earlier from the original Dec. 19 target, the head of the PPP Center said Monday.

Cosette Canilao, PPP Center executive director, said the technical evaluation for the deal, the government’s first airport public private partnership project, was nearing completion.

“We will have internal meetings, but there is a possibility the financial bids could be opened this week as well,” Canilao said in an interview yesterday.

On Nov. 28, the project drew bids from all seven prequalified groups.

These were AAA Airport Partners, led by the Ayala and Aboitiz Groups; MPIC-JGS Airport Consortium, led by Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments and Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings; San Miguel-Incheon Airport consortium; SM Group’s Premier Airport Group; the Lopez family’s First Philippine Airports; Megawide-GMR, and Filinvest-CAI, led by the Gotianun family’s Filinvest Group.

The DOTC earlier said it was planning to award the 25-year deal to expand, rehabilitate and operate the airport by Jan. 14 next year. The signing of the concession agreement was slated for Feb. 15.

The expansion of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, which is running beyond normal capacity, calls for the construction of a new world-class international passenger terminal building with a capacity of about eight million passengers a year.