NAIA terminal deal can’t be scrapped — GMA

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Legal complications prevent the government from scrapping the controversial deal with the Philippine International Air Terminals Corp. (Piatco), President Arroyo announced here yesterday.

"It (the Piatco contract) is under review but it’s been there through several governments and even if we abrogate it, we’ll just get a lawsuit," said the Chief Executive.

The President made the remark during rites renaming an airport in Pampanga after her late father, President Diosdado Macapagal, the first chief executive from this Central Luzon province.

While the government prefers to avoid legal complications on the Piatco contract, the President said it cannot prevent the airport here from operating.

Various groups have urged the government to scrap the Piatco contract because it is allegedly disadvantageous to the government which, they said, will likely lose billions of pesos.

The President, however, said the Piatco deal will not prevent the full development of DMIA as the country’s premiere international airport.

To this end, Mrs. Arroyo has ordered that a radar be installed at the DMIA and pledged to include the Clark Development Authority (CDA) in all future air accord negotiations.

She has also vowed to pursue the proposed Clark-Metro Manila light rail line which was shelved by the Estrada administration.

"We want this airport to be an international gateway but we can not do this with a flick of a wand," Mrs. Arroyo said, assuaging local groups objecting to the Piatco deal.

Groups such as Move Clark Now and Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement are opposing the Piatco deal because it bars the government from expanding DMIA facilities to international standards.

The Piatco deal is a build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangement signed by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and covers the construction of a new passenger terminal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Under the contract, the groups said, Piatco would only pay the government some P750 million every year when revenues from the NAIA international and domestic terminals now earn some P1.5 billion annually.

The contact also explicitly bars the government from developing any existing passenger terminal anywhere in Luzon, like the DMIA, until Piatco’s new terminal has served 10 million passengers for three consecutive years, the groups said.

The Piatco contract was amended during the Estrada administration to also limit the 2,500-hectare DMIA to 850,000 passengers per year although it can accommodate 1.5 million passengers.

The two groups have also vowed to block the confirmation of Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez, whom they blame for the contract which was signed when he was still a NAIA executive.