MPIC eyes foreign partners for Clark airport, railway projects

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is in talks with potential foreign partners for a comprehensive multi-billion airport project that will involve building and operating not only a second terminal at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark, Pampanga but also a modern railway system connecting the airport to Manila.

“We need foreign partners for this project. Because basically, there is no one in this country who has built or made or run a big airport as big as this,” MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.

Earlier, The STAR reported that the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) has approved a proposed joint venture between the Clark International Corp. (CIAC) and a Filipino-Korean group for the development of DMIA Terminal 2.

But sources told The STAR that the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) wants the unsolicited proposal submitted by the Philco Aero consortium, the Filipino-Korean group, junked and to conduct a new bidding involving solicited proposals.

“We have to import expertise initially. We are talking to several groups involved in the airport business within the region,” Pangilinan said.

The investment company is also open to a joint venture with San Miguel Corp. (SMC) for the Clark airport project.

“We are also open to have a partnership with San Miguel. We have already talked last year,” he said, but added that the talks have not yet resumed this year.

Pangilinan said the company has tapped the services of Indra Group, a sister company of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) , to do a feasibility study on the project. He said the study could take more than three months to complete. Pangilinan is also president of Meralco, which MPIC also partly owns.

He said the Indra Group has already sent a team to Clark three weeks ago. “The study will take several months,” Pangilinan said.

DMIA, which is 85 kilometers away from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, is the main airport serving the immediate vicinity of the Clark Special Economic Zone.

DMIA’s international passenger traffic reached 607,704 in 2010 while domestic passenger volume hit 46,525.

The development of DMIA Terminal 2 could trigger the entry of SMC as an investor into Philco Aero, the consortium that earlier submitted an unsolicited proposal to undertake for $144 million the development and operation of DMIA’s second terminal.

Philco Aero president Ricardo Penson told The STAR that they have signed an agreement with SMC whereby the latter will acquire 70 percent of Philco Aero.

“One of the conditions set by the SMC for the investment is that all the necessary permits for the project are already in place. But the funds SMC will invest are ready,” Penson said.

He, however, said that they are open to the idea of the MPIC, which has signified to CIAC its interest in building and operating Terminal 2, joining the consortium.