DOTC set to award P17.5-B Cebu airport project

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is set to finally issue a notice of award to the winning bidder for the P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu international airport expansion project.

DOTC Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla said in a text message that the agency’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) would award the project after a careful evaluation of the qualification and financial bid of the highest bidder last December.

 â€œYes that’s our expectation,” Lotilla said.

The tandem of Filipino-owned Megawide Construction Corp. and Bangalore-based GMR Airports submitted the highest bid of P14.404 billion for the project last Dec. 12 followed by the Filinvest - CAI Consortium with P13.999 billion, and Premier Airport Group of SM Group of retail magnate Henry Sy with P12.5 billion.

The MPIC-JGS Airport consortium led by infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and JG Summit Holdings submitted a bid of P11.23 billion while AAA Airport Partners led by the conglomerate Ayala Group and Cebu-based Aboitiz Land forwarded a bid of P11.088 billion.

The San Miguel Corp.-Incheon Airport consortium submitted a bid of P9.05 billion while the Lopez groups’ First Philippine Airports submitted the lowest bid of P4.7 billion.

However, the Filinvest Group of taipan Andrew Gotianun sought the disqualification of the Megawide-GMR group due to alleged conflict of interest involving GMR Infrastructure of India as well as First Philippine Airports Consortium that includes Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad.

In a letter dated Jan. 2, 2014, the Filinvest Group raised the alleged conflict of interest stating that GMR and Malaysia Airports are or were partners in all of GMR’s airport affiliates in violation of Article 5.6 of the bidding rules.

Specifically, the Filivest Group alleged that the managing director of MAHB sits as a director in all four GMR airports, namely, Delhi International Airport Private Ltd., GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd., Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport Group and GMR Male International Airport ( Maldives ).

The tandem Megawide and GMR Airports has repeatedly denied the alleged conflict of interest.