Cavite LGU eyes bond float to fund Sangley Point

MANILA, Philippines — The provincial government of Cavite wants to avoid for the time being money from China to fund its proposed new international airport in Sangley Point and instead plans to issue bonds to raise as much as P200 billion.

Funding has been one of the major issues hounding the proposed project of the Cavite government and the planned bond flotation, plus a couple of adjustments that would make the overall project cost smaller, should help the project move forward, according to Cavite Gov. Jesus Crispin Remulla.

“We are looking toward getting an independent financial consultant to make sure that our financial framework is viable because the most important part is the financing. We need to hire a financial consultant so we can form a consortium that can actually plan out the financing and the sharing and the actual feasibility with money on the table,” Remulla said.

“We are looking toward a bond float to start everything with the province as one of the initiators of the bond float,” he said.

Remulla said the Cavite government hopes to raise P200 billion initially through the bond float which he believes should be enough to get the project up and running.

“The Chinese may come in as investors and contractors later on, but right now we’re looking toward local financing because there’s too much controversy regarding China money. There’s enough money in the country for that,” he said.

The Sangley airport project has won the full support of China, particularly its One Belt, One Road initiative. Its proponents earlier reportedly signed a development agreement with the Citic Group, formerly the China International Trust Investment Corp., which is a state-owned investment company of the People’s Republic of China.

The Cavite government’s unsolicited proposal, which has been given the green light by the Department of Transportation in July last year, seeks to develop the former US naval station into a modern gateway and become an alternative to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport which is presently operating way beyond its capacity.

“In the initial feasibility study that we looked at, it was $10 billion but we think it can be smaller than that. We’re looking towards having a more practical amount. It just have to be tweaked properly,” Remulla said. 

“We want an airport than can carry 50 million passengers initially then move towards 100 million. We’re looking towards three runways in the future. It will take about three years for the first runway to come in,” he added.

Remulla said they are set to resubmit a more detailed plan of their proposal after previous submissions to the National Economic Development Authority encountered challenges.  

The Cavite government, however, has been given a deadline by Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to resolve all issues surrounding its proposal.

Tugade wants the Cavite government to submit by the middle of the year a revised proposal for the development of Sangley airport.

“Ultimately there will be a deadline imposed. I don’t want a hanging offer because if it is hanging, then when will we start?” Tugade said last week.

Remulla expressed uncertainty as to whether or not they can meet the deadline set by Tugade. 

However, he said they are doing everything at the moment to be able to comply with all the requirements and is pursuing all avenues possible to make the airport project push through.

“We respect the deadline he is setting but the country will always look toward a good project. A deadline is a deadline and we have to respect the deadline set by the Secretary,” he said.