DOTC: NAIA 3 builders should settle feud

"Settle your feud first. Get your act together and finish the airport terminal. I am ready to open it as soon as the issues are cleared."

This was what Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza told the Philippine International Airport Terminal Co. (Piatco) and its estranged partner, Fraport of Germany, after the government postponed the Dec. 15 opening of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.

The legal issue on whether the Piatco contract is valid or void, however, is an entirely different matter which only the Supreme Court can decide, Mendoza said.

Mendoza said he has been trying for quite some time to mediate between the group of Chinese-Filipino Cheng Yong of Piatco and local representatives of Fraport but their conflict has reached the courts.

"After they have settled their feud, corrected the defects pointed out by international experts and completed the unfinished portions of the project like the connecting road between terminals III and II, I am more than willing to have the terminal opened and operated," Mendoza stressed.

But Mendoza stressed that he will have to comply with the high court’s decision on pending the legal question.

For his part, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Edgardo Manda, in a letter to PIATCO president Vic Cheng Yong, said that the Terminal 3 facility is not complete and definitely far from ready for commercial operations despite the builder’s claims to the contrary.

Manda added that even the QAI design deviation report dated Dec. 3, 2002 shows that there are still a number of construction issues unresolved that clearly indicated that the building is far from complete.