Operations and maintenance contract bidding slated in August for new Bohol Airport

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) may start the bidding process for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the new Bohol (Panglao) Airport before August.

Manuel Antonio Tamayo, undersecretary for the aviation sector at the DOTr, said in a telephone interview the agency hopes to begin the bidding process for the O&M of the New Bohol Airport before August.

He said the DOTr is now working on the terms of reference for the bidding.

Construction of the new Bohol Airport, which started in 2015, is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

The project is expected to be completed by June and operational by August.

It will accommodate two million passengers in its opening year.

Apart from the O&M of the new Bohol Airport, Tamayo said the DOTr hopes to pursue bidding for other regional airport projects.

“We want the bidding for the operations and maintenance of the new Bohol Airport to be the model for other regional airport projects,” he said.

Earlier, the DOTr rejected the unsolicited proposals of Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. and Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. for the improvement and operations and maintenance of regional airports, as the agency wants to conduct a bidding for the projects.

In February, Chelsea submitted a P67 billion proposal to develop, operate and manage the Davao and new Bohol (Panglao) international airports for 30 years.

Meanwhile, AIC submitted a P148 billion proposal in March for the upgrade, expansion as well as operations of the Iloilo International Airport, Bacolod-Silay Airport, Laguindingan Airport, and the new Bohol International Airport in Panglao.

During the previous administration, the development of the regional airports were offered for bidding in bundles under the public-private partnership program.

In May last year, the government however, decided to terminate the bidding process to pursue the development of the airports using funds from the government or through official development assistance.