Filinvest remains confident of bagging Cebu airport proj

MANILA, Philippines - The Gotianun family’s Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) expects to bag the P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) project as it reiterated that frontrunner Megawide-GMR consortium violated the conflict of interest rule, disqualifying the company from the bidding.

“We are confident that the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) and the Prequalification Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC) will be following the bidding rules. We’re looking forward to a positive response,” FDC president and CEO Josephine Gotianun-Yap told reporters on the sidelines of FDC’s listing of P8.8-billion fixed-rate bonds in the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.

Gotianun-Yap said that according to the auction rules, a bidder or a partner of one bidder cannot be involved in the bid of another company.

FDC earlier said the GMR-Megawide consortium, composed of GMR Infrastructure Ltd. of India and Megawide Construction Corp., violated the rule as Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) is a partner in all of GMR’s airport facilities abroad. MAHB is the foreign partner of Lopez-led First Philippine Holdings Corp. in the MCIA auction. The Megawide-GMR consortium denied the allegation.

The tandem of Megawide and GMR topped the bidding for the MCIA with a financial offer of P14.404 billion, followed by the Filinvest-Changi Airport consortium (P13.999 billion) and Premier Airport Group led by the SM mall and banking conglomerate (P12.5 billion).

“In our case, all we are asking for is the DOTC and PBAC to follow the bidding rules so we are confident that if they follow the bidding rules, it is clear that violations were done,” Gotianun-Yap said.

Aside from the conflict of interest, FDC also sought the disqualification of the Megawide-GMR consortium amid questions on unsatisfactory performance, financial woes and long-term commitment.

The DOTC, for its part, has delayed the awarding of the MCIA project due to the ongoing review.

Megawide has earlier bagged three Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects offered by the Aquino Administration: the P5.7-billion new Philippine Orthopedic Center, the PPP School Infrastructure Project Phase One (PSIP-1) and PSIP-2.