Belmonte supports airport deal inquiry

CEBU, Philippines - House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has supported the inquiry sought by eight Cebu congressmen into the delay in the implementation of the expansion and modernization of the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

“We will conduct the inquiry. We will give it priority. This is an important project,” he said.

Deputy Majority Leader and Quezon City Rep. Jorge Banal, who sits in the rules committee, said the two resolutions introduced by Cebu lawmakers had been referred to the committee on transportation.

He said he agrees with his colleagues that implementation of the MCIA expansion and modernization project should be expedited.

“Like them, I am interested in knowing what are the problems holding up project implementation and how these could be resolved,” he said.

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said the inquiry is timely for the sake of transparency and accountability.

“In the spirit of transparency and accountability, I am very much willing to support the resolutions calling for the investigation of the Cebu-Mactan airport,” he said.

After several months of preparation, including the technical prequalification of seven prospective bidders from the private sector, the Department of Transportation and Communications  opened the financial bids for the project last Dec. 12.

The tandem of Mega-wide Construction Corp., a Philippine Stocks Exchange-listed entity, and Bangalore, India-based GMR Airports Ltd. submitted the highest offer of a P14.404-billion payment for the right to undertake the project.

However, project awarding has since been deferred, following a complaint lodged by the second-highest bidder, the tandem of Filinvest Development Corp., also a PSE-listed entity, and Changi Airports MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Pte Ltd., which offered P13.999 billion.

The eight Cebu lawmakers led by Rep. Gerard Anthony Gullas want the House committees on good government and transportation to look into the “unwarranted delay” in the execution of the project.

Meawhile, GMR-Megawide Consortium has expressed its willingness to provide all the necessary documents needed by the Senate, particularly Cebuano Senator Sergio Osmeña III in looking into the issues of the bidding raised by the second highest bidder.

In a statement, GMR-Megawide Consortium said the issues seen by the Senator are the same as those raised by Filinvest-Changi Airports International (CAI) Consortium.

Earlier this week, Osmeña urged the Senate to look into the delay in the awarding of the MCIA project in fear that the DOTC may give the project to a firm with a “questionable operating background and unstable financial standing.”

Osmeña cited “serious misgivings” of GMR Infrastructure Ltd. of India’s corporate competence, noting the company’s reportedly shaky financial standing and its partnership with the infamous German firm Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide, also known as Fraport, which has previously figured in the scandalous PIATCO-NAIA 3 terminal project.

But GMR-Megawide stressed that it has already clarified the issues with the Prequalification, Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC) of the DOTC and is willing to provide the same information they provided the latter to Osmeña.

“GMR is a financially sound company with a long term detracting of BBB+ and a short term debt rating of A2 given by international rating agencies. GMR has arranged for financing of more than US$10 billion for its various infrastructure projects,” GMR said in a statement. 

Also, the company said that it has no connection with the Fraport/Piatco. “Fraport is a minority partner in GMR’s Delhi International Airport and has no consequence or connection with the bid for the MCIA project.”

Further, GMR –Megawide Consortium stressed that it has proven that there is no conflict of interest with the First Philippine Consortium since Tan Sri Bashir is not a board member of GMR infrastructure, the bidding entity, and had no role to play in the bid.   (FREEMAN)