‘Government not alarmed by Bulacan airport delay’

MANILA, Philippines — The government is not alarmed over the delay in the completion of what would be the largest gateway in the Philippines being developed by conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), according to Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista.

While he would prefer for the project to be finished as originally planned, Bautista said a one-year delay would not hurt the country that much.

“After five years that is when we will really be needing that additional capacity. Even if it is delayed by one year, the effect will not be too big,” Bautista said in an interview yesterday.

“I’m sure San Miguel is doing all it can because there is no incentive for them to delay the project,” he said.

SMC said it is expecting a delay in the construction and operation of its P740-billion international gateway project in Bulacan due to the lack of sand, which is used as backfill for the on-going construction work.

It said the suspension by the government of the Manila Bay reclamation projects has limited the sand sources of the company.

In the event the backfill and sand sources are made available to the company, SMC said the New Manila International Airport (NMIA) might be operational by the first quarter of 2028, instead of 2027 as initially planned.

SMC recently reported that land development and ground improvement works are ongoing for the NMIA with an overall progress of 84.6 percent.

The NMIA is poised to be a world-class airport that will be developed in phases, with an initial capacity of 35 million passengers annually and a target of 100 million passengers per year once completed.

The 2,500-hectare project features at least four parallel runways, a world-class terminal and a modern and interlinked infrastructure network that includes expressways and railways.

Meanwhile, Bautista said the Department of Transportation is expecting an unsolicited proposal to be submitted by a conglomerate for one of the biggest airports in the country.

Bautista said he was already informed by the conglomerate of their planned submission of an unsolicited proposal within the year.

“I’m hoping they will push through with it,” he said.