Piatco not interested in running NAIA-3 mall

Retired Col. Guillermo Cunanan belied claims the other day that the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco), the consortium that built the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 complex, is dying to operate the mall inside the airport facility.

"This is yet part of another bucketful of lies gushing from the wellspring of deceit that is the mouth of Perfecto Yasay Jr.," exclaimed Cunanan.

Cunanan said Piatco, as builder of the spanking-new airport terminal, maintains that it has the right to operate NAIA-3 on the very basic principle that "those who toil hard should reap the fruits of their labor." He clarified though that Piatco sees NAIA 3 as a whole project, and would not settle to operating a part or a parcel of it, like the mall.

He maintained that Piatco still believes that it will be proven in the end that its contract with government which passed the scrutiny of several congressional committees, the OGCC, NEDA and the OSG would be upheld as valid.

Cunanan likened Yasay and the MIAA-NAIA Association of Service Operators (MASO) the latter heads to "a pack of vultures and scavengers waiting for the opportune moment to strike and feast on someone else’s labor."

"Let me remind Mr. Yasay that the concept of having a mall inside NAIA 3 did not come from Piatco, but from the original proponents of the project which was the Asian Emerging Dragon Corp. or AEDC chaired by Mr. Lucio Tan," Cunanan stressed.

"Piatco merely made government a better offer with guaranteed income running to billions of pesos or 135 times better than the one offered by original bidder AEDC. Now, why is Yasay blaming PIATCO for a concept which the PIATCO consortium merely implemented?" he asked.

For his part, former Solicitor General Frank Chavez brushed aside Yasay’s latest tirade as another proof that Yasay "would say anything, no matter how foolish he would look mouthing them, just to earn his keep."