Megawide [MWIDE 5.20 0.19%] [link] said that it was prepared to resubmit its unsolicited proposal for the NAIA Rehabilitation project, worth around P109 billion, “If the new administration is interested.”
MWIDE and its partner, India-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd (GMR), originally submitted the proposal in 2020 after the megazord consortium of local billionaires failed to convert its bid into a successfully-negotiated contract with the government.
The MWIDE/GMR bid quickly gained front-runner status by being awarded the coveted “original proponent status”, but then, later, after some odd bits of messaging from the Department of Finance and the Department of Transportation, the government revoked MWIDE/GMR’s special status and effectively ignored the bid and canceled the project.
Less than a year later, MWIDE and GMR executives were indicted by the Ombudsman in relation to allegations of violating the Anti-Dummy Law in their operation of the Mactan–Cebu International Airport. That legal process is still on-going and unresolved to this day.
MB BOTTOM-LINE
The rise and fall of MWIDE’s NAIA proposal was so strange that it almost requires the presence of some mustache-twirling “vested interests” pulling strings behind the scenes to make sense of how or why it could possibly go the way that it went.
Who are those vested interests? It’s hard to say, but it’s been pretty clear since MWIDE/GMR won that original proponent status that their potential success had caught someone’s attention.
Will that person or group still be in a position of authority when the administration changes after the election?
I don’t know. Will the cases against the MWIDE and GMR executives continue to be pressed once the administration changes hands in a few months?
Same answer. For MWIDE to openly discuss the continued pursuit of this project, however, tells me at least that they think a change in administration might dramatically alter the situation behind the scenes in their favor.
At least I hope that’s the case, otherwise, this kind of thing might just attract additional (unwanted) attention. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
--