‘Magnificent 7’ vie for Cebu airport project

MANILA, Philippines - Seven groups led by the country’s largest conglomerates submitted yesterday bids for the Aquino administration’s first airport project under its Public Private Partnership (PPP) program.

Jose Perpetuo Lotilla, DOTC undersecretary, said all the seven bidders prequalified last May 15 managed to beat yesterday’s 2 p.m. deadline for the submission of technical and financial proposals for the P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport expansion project.

Lotilla, who chairs the agency’s bids and awards committee (BAC), said the DOTC would review the technical proposals of the bidders whom he referred to as the “Magnificent Seven” over the next 20 days.

“We wish all the Magnificent Seven the best of luck for this bidding,” he said.

The seven bidders prequalified by the agency last May 15 based on the order in yesterday’s submission include the GMR Infrastructure and Megawide consortium; the MPIC-JGS Airport consortium led by infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan and JG Summit Holdings of taipan John Gokongwei; and Filinvest-CAI Airport consortium.

Other groups that submitted technical and financial proposals for the project include Premier Airport Group of SM Group of retail magnate Henry Sy; the Lopez groups’ First Philippine Airports;

San Miguel Corp.-Incheon Airport consortium; and AAA Airport Partners led by the conglomerate Ayala Group and Cebu-based Aboitiz Land.

The roster of foreign airport operators includes ADC & HAS of Houston Airport, Malaysia Airports Berhad, Singapore’s Changi Airport, South Korea’s Incheon Airport, France’s Aeroports de Lyon, Switzerland’s Zurich Airport, India’s Delhi Airports.

Lotilla, who chairs the agency’s BAC, pointed out that after 20 days, the DOTC would only open the financial bids of bidders whose technical proposals passed the evaluation.

In a statement, Michael Arthur Sagcal, DOTC spokesman, said the first airport Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project of the Aquino administration intends to expand the country’s second largest airport.

“The high turnout is proof that investors are confident in our PPP program.  We want to sustain the momentum from this project to the next ones in our pipeline,” Sagcal said.

Last Nov. 21, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board chaired by President Aquino approved seven major infrastructure projects including changes to the concession agreements to make the projects more attractive to interested bidders.

Several key improvements to the terms of the Mactan – Cebu international airport expansion project were approved by the NEDA Board making it more attractive to bidders and encouraging more competitive proposals.

These include extending the concession period from 20 years to 25 years, including the operation of the apron or aircraft parking area in the project scope, and imposing a 25-year ban on the operation of competing airports within the province of Cebu apart from the Bantayan and Camotes Islands.

The project would modernize the country’s second-largest aviation hub with the construction of a new world-class international passenger terminal building with an annual capacity of eight million passengers and at the same time expand the existing terminal building with a capacity of 4.5 million and has been operating at over-capacity with 6.7 million passengers since 2012.