DOTr eyes award of Bulacan airport concession in Q3

MANILA, Philippines —  Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) may receive the concession to develop and operate a new international airport in Bulacan by the third quarter, assuming that there would be no company or group that could top its offer.

Transportation Undersecretary for Aviation Manuel Tamayo said the terms of reference (TOR) or the guidelines for the Swiss challenge are now being finalized, with the hope of getting it published by next month.

“Hopefully within April we can publish the TOR for the Swiss challenge for the Bulacan airport,” he said.

Once the TOR is published, other groups or companies would then have 60 days to give better offers than that of SMC’s proposal.

Should there be an offer that is better than that of SMCs, the conglomerate led by tycoon Ramon Ang, having been granted the original proponent status by the government, has the right to match the offer.

Tamayo said the awarding of the concession agreement for the Bulacan airport may take place by the third quarter.

Ang earlier said his group is hopeful that it could hit the ground running on actual construction of the project this year.

Transportation Undersecretary Ruben Reinoso earlier said the development of the Bulacan international airport would be undertaken in phases by SMC, with the group committing to make the first phase of the project operational in three to four years, which would include two runways and a capacity of 35 million passengers.

The development of the Bulacan airport is part of the DOTr’s multi-airport strategy to decongest NAIA which serves as the country’s main international gateway.

The P754 billion airport development of San Miguel Holdings Corp. in Bulacan province, dubbed as the New Manila International Airport project, was granted approval by the NEDA chaired by President Duterte in April last year.

The concession agreement for the project secured the approval from the NEDA board last December.

The project involves the construction of a world-class, major international gateway with four to six parallel runways, modern terminals, a seaport, an industrial zone, and necessary infrastructure such as expressways.