Yasay calls Piatco takeover proposal a brazen move

Piatco has no money to finish the controversial NAIA Terminal 3 and absolutely no moral authority to even ask that it be allowed to take over the project again after it was caught violating the law and bidding rules.

Lawyer Perfecto Yasay Jr., chairman of the MIAA-NAIA Service Operations, said a company whose contract has been declared null and void and still wants to take over the project again is clutching at straws.

The best it can do is wait until the Supreme Court finally decides if the Executive Branch was correct in declaring the Piatco contract void from the start, he said.

"Piatco has been spending whatever money it has on public relations and lawyers. Nothing has been spent to address the 42 items to Japanese quality assurance inspector said Piatco has failed to address and finish according to specifications," he said.

Piatco, in a press statement last weekend, said it can finish the terminal in 60 days. Yasay said: "How can they when they have no money? The terminal is one big shell with no ATM, no restaurant, no public phones, no airline lounges, no certified communications facilities between the ground personnel and the cockpit crew, and not even a coffee shop for the passengers?"

Besides, he said, "who will operate the airport? Fraport of Germany is also suing Piatco for payment and no longer wants to have anything to do with the Chengs, its local partner in Piatco."

Yasay also pointed out that then Takenaka Corp. of Japan stopped work on the project last Dec. 3 after Piatco failed to keep up with progress payments, Piatco said this stoppage was agreed upon with Takenaka only as a Christmas break. Work, according to Piatco, was supposed to resume by the first week of January.

"This is the longest Christmas break I’ve seen because up to now Takenaka is still out and has even padlocked some key equipment in the terminal to protect its interest," he said.

Piatco has been unmasked, he said. "It has no money to finish the project and, going by the Senate Blue Ribbon report, no money to start it in the first place."

The takeover proposal is a new tack of Piatco and may have replaced its earlier position for renegotiation after the government stood firm that it would sit down and talk only if Piatco admits its contract is null and void.