Germany hopes for closure on Fraport

MANILA, Philippines - The German ambassador said yesterday that Germany hopes that the Fraport-Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) 3 controversy will finally have closure under the administration of president-apparent Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Ambassador Christian-Ludwig Weber-Lortsch said they received “very encouraging signals” from Aquino on his future plans for “building and rebuilding trust in business, and how to attract foreign investors.”

“I am really convinced that within this environment we will also find solutions for the glitches and the residual dust from the past,” Weber-Lortsch told reporters.

The German envoy and 12 other European Union ambassadors paid a visit to Aquino in his Times street home in Quezon City to congratulate him ahead of his proclamation.

Aquino said they did not discuss the issue of the NAIA Terminal 3 specifically but it was important to put closure to it.

Relations between the Philippines and Germany had been strained because one of the builders of the airport, the German firm Fraport AG, had filed a case against the Philippine government for failing to compensate them for the project.

The NAIA 3 was one of the most controversial projects the Philippine government has been involved with. Legal battles and red tape, especially international cases in both the United States and Singapore as a result of mismanagement of the project by the Estrada government, as well as technical and safety concerns, delayed its opening several times.

Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corporation (AEDP) gave the original proposal for the construction of a third terminal but eventually lost the bid to PairCargo and its partner Fraport AG, who began construction under the administration of then President Estrada.

A legal dispute between the government and the project’s main contractor, Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (PIATCO), over the build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract, delayed the final completion and opening of the terminal.