Court cases won’t delay NAIA-3 opening — Palace

President Arroyo is determined that court cases will not delay the opening of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) by June this year, a Malacañang official said yesterday.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye expressed confidence that the government can meet its self-imposed deadline of six months to open and start operating the international terminal built by a consortium composed of Germany’s Fraport AG and the Philippine International Air Terminals Co.

In a statement, he said the temporary restraining order of the Supreme Court (SC) "paves the way... for the opening of the NAIA-3 terminal and furthering the national interest."

Bunye alluded to the SC ruling that favored the petition filed by Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo seeking to restrain Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 117 Henrick Gingoyon from enforcing his order for the government to pay Piatco a deposit of $62.3 million.

He echoed the government’s position that it should not put up the $62.3-million deposit until the lower court resolves how much "just compensation" should be given to the contractors that built the terminal under the aegis of Piatco.

"As we bolster the government’s authority to take full control of the controversial terminal, all stakeholders may be assured of just compensation under the law," he said.

Fraport, which owns 30 percent of Piatco, has said it will pursue its demands for financial compensation in a long-running legal battle that is currently before the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Benipayo said several other parties also made claims on the deposit and sought just compensation. Japan’s Takenaka Corp., one of Piatco’s contractors, has made at least a $70-million claim on the deposit, he added.

Bunye, in an interview over Radio Mindanao Network yesterday, took exception to talk that Mrs. Arroyo, through the eight justices she appointed to the SC, maneuvered the high court ruling to favor the government.

"I think it is a great insult to the Supreme Court, especially (since) the ponente of this (ruling) was Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. himself, known for his integrity, probity and wise judgment," he said.

Bunye said the ongoing repair and completion work at NAIA-3 involve 42 "major" and "minor" defects in the terminal’s facilities, including the construction of a "secured road or passageway" through which passengers’ luggage would go for loading into and off-loading from airplanes.

"It is important that we ensure once (NAIA-3) is opened, it will be safe for all concerned," he said.

Bunye refused to give details, saying the government’s official spokesman on this issue is Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza, whose office is in charge of completion work for the new terminal.

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Alfonso Cusi, whose office oversees the actual repair and completion work, expressed elation over the SC ruling.

"With this decision from the high court, no less, we are not only elated but inspired to pursue with even more determination our work program geared towards the opening of (NAIA-3) for commercial operation... by June this year," he said.

Cusi said the MIAA is "proceeding with pedal to the metal just so we could meet this deadline, without sacrificing safety concerns at the new terminal, and provided we are within the legal process and in consonance with the policies set by the government on the tourism and business fronts."

The MIAA is coordinating with government offices, airline operators and their aviation partners to effectively promote the new terminal once it is fully operational, he added.

Wrong laws cited?

Piatco employees, who asked the Pasay City court to reverse its Dec. 21 decision granting a writ of possession over NAIA-3 to the government, said lawyers on both sides cited laws that are inapplicable to the case.

Lawyer Harry Roque, representing the Piatco employees, said neither Republic Act 8974 nor Rule 67 of the Rules of Court apply to the NAIA-3 expropriation, which is a special case that needs a special law.

Piatco employees, in a separate motion for intervention, demanded that the Pasay City court "quash the writ of possession" or order the government to deposit in Piatco’s account at least $565 million, which they say is "the actual replacement cost of NAIA-3."

Roque said the lower court has been applying provisions of RA 8974 on the expropriation proceedings and in its order for the government to pay Piatco $62.3 million as initial just compensation.

Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo, on the other hand, questioned the order and argued that the appropriate law was Rule 67, which is an older law and precisely what RA 8974 had revised, according to the court.

"Rule 67 and RA 8974 contemplate an acquisition of property in a situation where the property owner who will be deprived of property has no ‘builder in good faith’ relationship with the government. Both laws serve as general rule on expropriation," Roque said.

He said Article 448 of the New Civil Code applies in the expropriation case because Piatco earned the rights of a "builder in good faith," including the "right to retention of the property until proper indemnification."

Piatco became a builder in good faith, according to Roque, when the SC nullified the consortium’s contract with the government for the construction of the terminal by "automatic operation of law."

The consortium built NAIA-3 "in good faith believing that it had the right to do so. Good faith, after all, consists in the belief of the builder that by some title he has the right to build on the land," he said.

Roque added that under the same provision, "Piatco acquired, ipso jure, vested rights in the procedure before it could be deprived ownership of NAIA-3."

He noted that even if the expropriation was properly done, the government still failed to make the "proper deposit mandated by law under Section 2 of Rule 67, as amended by RA 8974."

Piatco’s legal counsel Frank Chavez, himself a former solicitor general, said he doubts the government’s sincerity in paying the just compensation due Piatco and its contractors because the Land Bank of the Philippines literally shut its doors on the consortium’s representatives who were supposed to inquire about the deposited amount.

"This government does not have word of honor. They seem to be in ‘mental disarray’ now that the solicitor general is singing another tune," Chavez told The STAR in a phone interview.

He added that they were still studying how they will respond to the SC’s temporary restraining order, which they are supposed to comment upon within 10 days after receiving the resolution.

Sen. Manuel Roxas II, who chairs the Senate committees on trade and commerce and on economic affairs, said NAIA-3’s operation would "ease international and domestic travel in a big way, both for passengers and cargo."

He also said that though Fraport is demanding payment of $465 million for constructing NAIA-3, "there is absolutely no justification whatsoever" for the government to pay Piatco any amount in excess of the consortium’s original bid of $360 million for the project.

The President earlier said all incoming and outgoing international flights will be done at NAIA-3 once it becomes fully operational.

She disclosed plans to convert NAIA Terminal 1 into a commercial complex but failed to say what would happen to Terminal 2, which is currently being used exclusively by all international and domestic flights of the Philippine Airlines.

NAIA-3 has been mothballed since 2003 when the Arroyo administration revoked the consortium’s "build-operate-transfer" contract with the government on the grounds that certain terms were illegally renegotiated by her predecessor, deposed President Joseph Estrada in 1998. — With Sandy Araneta, Edu Punay, Jose Rodel Clapano