DOTr to solicit more offers for NAIA rehab

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) will proceed with its plan to solicit proposals from the private sector for the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) even as a consortium is presenting itself to do it.

Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista expects the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to deliver its recommendations on the privatization of NAIA by June.

Once received, the DOTr will use the recommendations of ADB to draft the terms of reference (TOR) in soliciting proposals for the operations and maintenance of NAIA.

On the other hand, Bautista said the DOTr will study the unsolicited proposal filed by the Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC) to invest P100 billion for the modernization of NAIA. At present, the agency is checking whether the offer complied with all the required documents.

“The initial study is to have a solicited [proposal]. That is the reason we engaged ADB, for us to be able to entertain a solicited proposal. Since there is this unsolicited proposal, we have to work on it. We are given 35 days to do the completion check and that is what we are doing,” Bautista told reporters.

Bautista also plans to use the recommendations of ADB in assessing the MIAC proposal, giving no assurance that the offer will be approved even with the promise of a P100 billion investment in the airport.

Should the DOTr push through with a solicited bidding, proponents have to calibrate the cost and design of their proposals based on the TOR issued by the government.

The ADB is working with the DOTr in preparing the technical studies like market sounding and traffic report that will serve as a framework in developing the TOR for the NAIA privatization.

NAIA is the busiest airport in the Philippines with a passenger capacity of 31 million per year. In 2019, the gateway facilitated the travel of around 48 million guests, making it ripe for an expansion and upgrade to serve the future increase in demand.

In April, MIAC submitted a P100-billion proposal to rehabilitate NAIA, with the primary goal of doubling its passenger capacity to 62.5 million every year. MIAC is made up of six infrastructure developers owned and run by some of the richest tycoons in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Bautista said the DOTr has yet to identify the cause of the power disruption in NAIA Terminal 3 on May 1 that affected dozens of flights of at least 13,000 passengers.

He said the DOTr has received an offer from business titan Manuel V. Pangilinan, who controls Manila Electric Co., to do the electrical audit on NAIA free of charge.