NAIA Consortium ready to finalize airport rehab deal once ECQ is lifte

MANILA, Philippines — A consortium of conglomerates seeking to rehabilitate the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is raring to finalize the terms of its contract with the government once the enhanced community quarantine is lifted as it hopes to advance its proposal to the Swiss challenge phase soon.

The NAIA consortium, now composed of six conglomerates, will need to reach first a consensus with the government with regards to the terms of the concession agreement to move its P102-billion rehabilitation proposal to the Swiss challenge phase.

“We are ready to resume discussions with the government once the quarantine is lifted,” Aboitiz InfraCapital president and CEO Cosette Canilao told The STAR.

Canilao said the consortium, in which Aboitiz InfraCapital is one of the members, and the government negotiation panel were finalizing the terms of the contract in order to proceed to the Swiss challenge prior to the implementation of the quarantine last March.

“Admittedly, there’s been limited development on discussions on NAIA due to the enhanced community quarantine,” she said.

In a virtual briefing last week, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said “there are ongoing checking and counterchecking” as far as the NAIA Consortium’s proposal is concerned.

“But a deadline has to be put,” he said.

Tugade has previously been setting deadlines to the consortium to finalize a deal, warning that he may be forced to cancel the unsolicited proposal and offer it to parties that are ready to accept the government’s terms and conditions.

Concerns on real property tax, the “people mover” system that will be used to link the passenger terminals, and MIAA employees which could be laid off were among the issues that were earlier identified as preventing the deal from reaching its conclusion.

Infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. has already pulled out from the NAIA consortium, bringing down to six the members of the group which is now composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital, AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp., and JG Summit Holdings Inc.