San Miguel stays keen on airport development

April 16, 2015 at 15:17

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Posted on March 23, 2015 11:15:00 PM

San Miguel stays keen on airport development

DIVERSIFIED conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) remains keen on its proposal to build a new $10-billion airport in Metro Manila and bid for regional airport and port development deals up for grabs under the public-private partnership (PPP) program, a top company official said on Monday.

“We will still pursue [our plan to build an airport along Cyberbay reclamation area] by urging the government to call for a public bidding,” San Miguel President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang at the sidelines of the project briefing on the P13.1-billion Southern Luzon Expressway-Toll Road 4 in Tiaong, Quezon province.

Asked if he wanted the proposed $10-billion airport project to be included in the PPP program, he replied: “yes, so [auction is] transparent and open; not unsolicited.” In a disclosure in May last year, San Miguel had said that the proposed airport will “be constructed on a build-operate-transfer basis and located at the waterfront reclamation project along the Manila-Cavite coastal road at the border of Parañaque and Las Piñas cities.”

Mr. Ang yesterday also confirmed that details of the airport plan — involving “five years of construction” — have not changed.

About 10 months since it presented the airport proposal to the Office of the President, Mr. Ang said San Miguel “has not received a letter from them saying that our proposal is rejected.”

Malacañang officials could not be reached immediately for comment, but Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya replied in a text message on Monday: “I haven’t talked to him yet,” without saying if the Executive was still open to San Miguel’s proposal.

There are two other plans for a new airport involving conversion of the former US Navy station at Sangley Point, Cavite: one by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and another by All-Asia Resources and Reclamation Corp.

OTHER PROJECTS
Also yesterday, Mr. Ang said his company “will also bid” for the development as well as operation and maintenance (O&M) of six regional airports and a port in Davao under the PPP scheme.

The five airport PPP deals, cumulatively worth some P108.9 billion, will be offered in two bundles. The first bundle consists of Bacolod airport (P20.26 billion) and Iloilo airport (P30.40 billion); while the second package counts the New Bohol (Panglao) airport (P2.34 billion), Laguindingan airport (P14.62 billion) and Davao airport (P40.57 billion).

San Miguel is one of the companies that bought bid documents for the regional airport PPP deals. Others are JG Summit Holdings, Inc.; Metro Pacific Investments Corp.; and Megawide Construction Corp.

Early this month, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) said it will leave out the P5.81-billion Puerto Princesa Airport Development and O&M Project, which initially formed part of the regional airport PPP package in an invitation to pre-qualify and bid published in December last year. Instead, it will be “bundled… into a comprehensive tourism airport-centric strategy for Palawan airports, such as San Vicente, which will be completed in around three months, and also Busuanga,” DoTC Spokesperson Michael Arthur C. Sagcal had said.

Mr. Ang said his firm is interested in “both” airport bundles. Asked if San Miguel has a foreign partner for the deals, he replied: “No, wala.” Besides the bundled airport projects, Mr. Ang added that San Miguel “will also bid” for the Puerto Princesa project and P18.99-billion Davao Sasa Port Modernization Project. — Chrisee J. V. Dela Paz