A company owned by one of the country’s business tycoons and its Chinese partner yesterday emerged as the sole bidder for the development of the $10-billion Sangley Point International Airport project in Cavite.
As of the 2 p.m. deadline for the submission of bids yesterday, only the partnership of Lucio Tan‘s MacroAsia Corp. unit MacroAsia Properties Development Corp. (MAPDC) and China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (CCCC) submitted a joint venture (JV) proposal containing its technical and financial offer for the development of the airport.
The project will be a JV with the province of Cavite.
“Upon perusal of their submission, their JV proposal was deemed complete, subject to detailed evaluation by the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Selection Committee,” said Jesse Grepo, legal officer and secretary of the committee.
If the CCCC-Macroasia consortium qualifies in the evaluation of the PPP selection commmitee, the local government of Cavite will proceed with the issuance of the notice selection of the JV in January.
“It depends on how detailed their proposal is. It is still subject to the evaluation of the PPP-s Selection Committee. But we are looking at the issuance of selection on second or third week of January,” Grepo said in a text message when asked how long the evaluation period will take.
Other companies that bought bid documents but did not submit bids include Metro Pacific Investment Corp.,, Philippine Airport Ground Solutions International, Mosveldtt Law offices, Langham Properties Inc. and PICTO.
Construction of Sangley airport is targeted to start by the first quarter. Phase 1 involves
the construction of a single runway and a passenger terminal with capacity of 20 million passengers per year. This will be completed in three years.
Phase 2 involves the construction of four runways and a passenger terminal with a capacity 100 million passengers.
The reclamation component alone costs $3 billion with the bulk to go to the construction of the airport including the runway and terminals.
The provincial government of Cavite is the lead proponent and implementing agency of the project under the provincial government’s PPP scheme.
The selected JV partner will provide the necessary equity investment and credit enhancements subject to a further competitive process or price test, perform engineering, procurement and construction services for the land and airport development components.
Aside from the legal, technical and financial qualifications set by the provincial government, the selected JV partner should also pass the credit standards of project lenders.
The Cavite government would separately bid out the operation and maintenance of the new international airport.
The airport is expected to be at par with Singapore’s Changi International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport and South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, as it is positioned to be the next biggest development in air transport innovation in the country.
Sangley Airport is an important alternative to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). President Duterte earlier ordered the transfer this year of domestic flights from NAIA to Sangley Air Base to ease congestion at the country’s main gateway.
