The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is hoping the private sector will participate in the solicited proposals for the rehabilitation and operation of the country’s premier gateway, Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), as well as other regional airports with the new rules for public-private partnerships (PPP).
The plan for NAIA is to offer it to the private sector in a PPP arrangement, said Jaime Bautista, DOTr secretary, at the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines forum.
This is because in the past administration, conglomerates submitted an unsolicited proposal but they were not able to close the deal with the government due to risks like the Material Adverse Government Action.
Solicited proposals are offers on projects identified by government agencies where the private sector is invited to participate in the bidding.
Unsolicited proposals are those submitted by the private sector not in response to a formal solicitation or request is-sued by the government agency and are not part of the priority project. These undergo Swiss challenge that will enable other companies to challenge the original proponent’s proposal.
“With the implementation of new IRR (implementing rules and regulations) on PPPs, we made it sure the risk is shared between the government and the private sector. We’re hoping with the implementation of the new IRR, the private will be again interested in pursuing their plans to help government improve the Manila International Airport. What we plan to do, this time, we prefer to have solicited proposals rather than unsolicited proposals… to conform to global standards,” Bautista said.
“We plan to invite the private sector for the Bohol (airport in) Panglao, Laguindingan and even Davao. We would like private sector to participate,” he added.
Last week, Bautista presented the plan to bid out the upgrade, expansion and operation of 10 regional airports under the PPP scheme.
These airports are Bohol, Laguindingan, Bicol, Iloilo, Puerto Princesa, Davao, Bacolod, Kalibo, Busuanga and Siargao. Four additional new regional airports will also be constructed in Dumaguete, Siargao, Zamboanga and Masbate.
For this year, 11 airports are set to be completed, including Tuguegarao, San Vicente, Tacloban, Antique and Bacolod-Silay.
Bautista said for the airport sector, the total project cost is close to P1 trillion which will be funded by the government and the private sector through PPP.
