No one being favored in NAIA-3 deal — GMA

No group or firm is being favored by the government to operate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3), President Arroyo clarified yesterday.

Her administration’s main concern is have the mothballed facility operational by November, she said.

"Nobody has an inside track on anything," Mrs. Arroyo said during an interview with STAR publisher Max Soliven on his "Impact" television talk show on the ANC cable news channel last night.

"There are legal issues that are being ironed out but while these legal issues are being ironed out, the physical completion is taking place now."

Mrs. Arroyo said Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza has reported to her that the Japanese contractor hired to complete work on the terminal, Takenaka Corp., has committed to finish the job in three to four months.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita earlier said the terminal is about 97 percent finished and could be operational before yearend.

Two firms are vying to operate the sprawling facility: Manila Hotel Corp. and Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp. (AEDC).

Manila Hotel is owned by newspaper magnate Emilio Yap while AEDC is owned by beer and tobacco tycoon Lucio Tan, who also controls Philippine Airlines.

Manila Hotel recently took over Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco), the consortium that built the terminal, after it bought the equity of Piatco’s three foreign partners in the consortium.

AEDC claims it has the legal right to operate the terminal because the Supreme Court nullified Piatco’s government contract for the facility.

The company made an unsolicited proposal to build the terminal but later lost to Piatco.

Piatco and the government are currently locked in a court battle over the terminal, which the Arroyo administration expropriated last December.

After Manila Hotel took over Piatco, both sides began talks early this month in an attempt to resolve the legal dispute and speed up the opening of the terminal.

Officials of foreign airlines operating at the old NAIA terminal, however, say they need at least six months to transfer their operations to NAIA 3.

Santiago Medrana III, vice president of the Airline Operators’ Council, said that the new January 2006 target date set by the government to open the terminal was too early.

"The requirement of the airlines for the transfer is at least six months," Medrana told reporters yesterday. "The normal run of the paperwork is six months," including closing down their old offices and setting up shop at the new terminal.

Medrana said that the AOC, an association of foreign airlines operating in the country, expressed misgivings about the Manila International Airport Authority’s (MIAA) failure to apprise them of developments.

They only learned of the new target date for opening the terminal from newspaper reports, he said.

MIAA general manager Alfonso Cusi said they will hold a "soft opening" of the terminal in December for a "technical systems check" in preparation for the January opening.

"If everything turns out well, we expect to open the terminal by the end of January 2006," Cusi told a press briefing.

The MIAA is currently finalizing lease contract agreements that will be sent to the airlines.

"We will be issuing the lease contracts before the month ends, this September," Cusi said. "These will be lease contracts, not reservation agreements."

Efforts to open the terminal in June were stalled because of delays in writing up the contracts.

The Pasay City Regional Trial Court, while allowing expropriation of the terminal, barred the government from exercising ownership until Piatco was compensated.

The government contested the court order, arguing it had legal grounds to operate the facility. It is also disputing the court-ordered initial compensation of $62 million to Piatco.

Piatco is asking for over $600 million in compensation after the government expropriated the terminal but the figure is being contested.

"Despite the problems, we plodded on with the work and fortunately, there have been some breakthroughs," Cusi said, declining to give details. — With Rainier Allan Ronda