Clark executive 'open to resignation' as GMA junks Kuwait contractor

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga , Philippines  – Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) chairman Nestor Mangio yesterday said he is “open to resignation” after President Arroyo ordered the junking of the Kuwaiti firm Al Mal as contractor for the $100-million Terminal 2 of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here.

This, as Max Sangil, director of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), urged Mangio to “resign out of delicadeza” after the CIAC board again rejected Al Mal last Monday as contractor for the project, as directed by the President.

“I am open to resigning and I will think about this,” Mangio said, adding though, “Personally, I am quite convinced that Al Mal is the best contractor for the development of the DMIA.”

“We have been looking for a contractor for the past two years and all, except Al Mal, failed in financial capability,” he said, pointing out that M.A. Kharafi and Sons, Al Mal’s mother company, has been listed by Fortune Magazine as among the world’s richest.

Last Saturday, in her hometown in Lubao this province, the President was reported to have directed the scrapping of Al Mal as contractor amid controversies on its proposals for the terminal project.

CIAC executive vice president Alex Cauguiran said that while the plan was to bid out only the construction of Terminal 2, Al Mal also wanted to take over the existing Terminal 1 and have control over 1,500 hectares of the 2,500-hectare civil aviation complex in this freeport.

Cauguiran added that Al Mal demanded that no premiere airport be operated within a 150-kilometer radius of the DMIA for 45 years, extendable for another 25 years.

“This would deprive other provinces the same chance to host a premiere airport that we fought for before the DMIA was developed,” he said.

Al Mal’s proposal was first junked in December 2008 but was later revived after the CIAC failed in its initial bidding for the project.

Apart from Al Mal, which Mangio has allegedly pushed, other proposals for the Terminal 2 project have come from a Malaysian consortium with partners from the United States and the Middle East, and a South Korean consortium with local partners.

Because of Mangio’s alleged insistence to consider Al Mal for the DMIA’s development, Sangil said the construction of Terminal 2 has been delayed. “The timetable was disrupted,” he said.

Mangio, however, said Sangil has been blaming him for his removal as a member of the CIAC board last December.

“But I had no control over rules and regulations. There is a prescription against one person being a member of both the boards of CIAC and BCDA. Later I found out the President had signed the appointment of Raffy Angeles as his replacement in the CIAC board,” Mangio said.

He alleged that Sangil worked for his appointment to the BCDA board since the directorship is not co-terminus with the term of President Arroyo.