Completion of NAIA 3 seen to spur tourism

The completion of the NAIA International Passenger Terminal 3 (NAIA-IPT-3) will help pave the way for the revival of the country’s tourism industry, an official of the company that is building the state of the art airport facility said.

Jeffrey Cheng, executive director of the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (PIATCO), stressed that the new facility, which rests on a 180,000-square meter lot in Parañaque, complements government’s thrust to attract more tourists into the country to help lift the national economy.

"First of all, the NAIA IPT-3 has the capacity to accommodate 13 million arrivals a year from the six million that the present NAIA terminal 1 can accommodate. This means that by sheer physical capacity, we can accommodate more arrivals," said Cheng.

He added the first class facilities of the new airport are "at par with world standards." "A world class, fully-equipped air facility that can accommodate a higher volume of tourists is a must if we are to revive the Philippine tourism industry," said Cheng.

The construction of the airport facility at a cost of over P26 billion is being undertaken at no cost to government as the project is a build-operate-transfer undertaking involving Filipino, German, Singaporean, and Japanese companies namely: Flughafen Frankfurt Main AG, People’s Aircargo & Warehousing Co. Inc., Philippine Airport and Ground Services Terminal Inc., Philippine Airport and Ground Services Inc., SB Airport Investments, Inc., and Nissho Iwan Corp.

At present, the Philippines lags behind in terms of tourist arrivals in the region to such countries as Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia which are equipped with first rate airports.

Meanwhile, lawyer Moises Tolentino, PIATCO spokesman, brushed aside claims by certain quarters of any discrepancy in the contract for the construction of the NAIA IPT-3.

"The contract is valid as it is binding and above-board. It definitely complies with the build-operate-transfer (BOT) law in every way," stressed Tolentino. He points out further that it would not have been approved by the National Economic and Development Authority Investment Coordinating Council as well as pass scrutiny by the House committee on transportation and communication had there been any violation of existing laws.

"To say that the contract violates the law in any way is clearly an attempt to mislead Filipinos and deprive them of something that will benefit the nation. It is unclear what the agenda of these parties are," Tolentino said.