Completion of NAIA Terminal 3 to cost Phl gov't $40 million

MANILA, Philippines - Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Manuel Roxas II disclosed yesterday that Japanese firm Takenaka Corp.’s completion of the unfinished portion of the controversial Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 complex will cost the government about $40 million.

In a press briefing at the DOTC in Mandaluyong City, Roxas said that the price of Takenaka for completing the terminal is now $40 million after negotiations that reduced the price from the original demand ranging from $60 million to $80 million.

He assured the people that the $40 million has already been deducted by the government from the claim of the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco) for just compensation, the amount of which is being computed by the Pasay City regional trial court.

“We had already deducted that from their claim for just compensation being computed by the Pasay RTC,” Roxas said.

”There will be no double compensation here,” Roxas said.

He stressed that the program of work agreed on with Takenaka excluded the structural defects found by their multinational engineering consultant Ove Arup International.

He said that Ove Arup was already coming out with all their recommendations for the structural retrofit, which when finished, can be started immediately after the DOTC gets a contractor to do their requisite construction work.

Roxas had signed an agreement with Takenaka officials to finish the terminal during a trip to Tokyo.

Part of the agreement, the DOTC said, was the Civil Works Agreement (CWA) Estimate of 23 Systems, which covers the delivery of 23 airport systems critical to make said facility fully operational.

DOTC and Takenaka, under the MOU, agreed to execute the CWA within 30 days from the date of execution of the agreement.

The 23 airport systems include baggage handling and reconciliation system, flight information display system, building management system, local area network, fire alarm and protection system, and passenger loading bridges.

Takenaka was the original contractor commissioned by Piatco to build NAIA 3 in 1998. However, construction at the NAIA Terminal 3 was halted in 2002 after allegations of anomalies cropped up.

The Supreme Court had also nullified the build-operate-transfer contract of Piatco after finding amendments made on it highly disadvantageous to the government.

Once completed, the 182,500-square meter terminal would have the capacity to service up to 33,000 passengers daily at peak or 6,000 passengers per hour.

It also has 34 air bridges and 20 contact gates, allowing it to service 28 planes simultaneously.

The DOTC said that some of the operations of the more than 30-year-old NAIA Terminal 1 building would be transferred to Terminal 3.

Meanwhile, Roxas said he had given Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) director general Ramon Gutierrez enough time to regain for the country a Category I rating with United States’ Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).

He said that when he assumed the DOTC top post last July, Gutierrez had already started efforts to address deficiencies in the country’s civil aviation systems.

Roxas said he had chosen not to interfere with the latter’s programs at the CAAP, so as not to impede the agency’s ongoing activities to fix its systems and make it compliant with international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

However, with the dismal findings of the US FAA on their pre-screening audit of the CAAP conducted last Jan. 23 to 27, Roxas admitted that the country’s chances of regaining Category I status have not improved.

Roxas admitted that the findings of the FAA were not so good.

Asked what the DOTC was going to do to improve the situation and the fate of Gutierrez, Roxas said that it was all up to President Aquino.

“Let’s wait for the President’s decision,” Roxas said.

Gutierrez, along with six other officials of the CAAP, were “handpicked” by the President to lead the agency in December 2010 which, since its creation in 2009, faced the challenge of regaining for the Philippines Category I rating with the FAA, and showing to the ICAO it has addressed “significant safety concerns” in the country’s civil aviation systems raised by the UN aviation body in 2008.

Gutierrez, a former Philippine Air Force officer, is said to be a close friend of Aquino,   having served as aide-de-camp of the President’s late mother, the former President Cory Aquino.

Gutierrez’s older brother, retired Philippine National Police general Jose Gutierrez, was named director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Another aide-de-camp of the late President Cory, also a retired Philippine Air Force official, retired general Jose Angel Honrado, was appointed as general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority.