DOTC chief unveils NAIA 3 marker today

Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez unveils today the marker for the $500-million Ninoy Aquino International Airport International Passenger Terminal 3 (NAIA 3).

The topping-off ceremony is expected to be graced by important guests from government and the airline industry.

The mammoth structure now rising at the former Villamor Air Base site is nearing completion and is seen to undergo commissioning by end of next year.

"We’re right on schedule. We see no hitches and we expect the new terminal to be fully operational by early 2003," said lawyer Moises Tolentino, special assistant to president Cheng Yong of the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (PIATCO).

The company won the bid to construct the facility under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.

Other guests who are expected to grace the occasion are NAIA general manager Edgardo Manda, Air Transport Office assistant secretary Adelberto Yap and Civil Aeronautics Board executive director Manuel San Jose.

NAIA 3 has been designed to accommodate at least 13 million passengers per year, enabling the country’s premier airport to cope with the fast increasing number of air travelers coming to or going out of the Philippines.

When completed, the new terminal will replace the 20-year old NAIA Terminal 1 which will be converted along with Terminal 2 into a domestic terminal. The old terminal was designed to accommodate only 4.3 million passengers annually. With passengers passing through this terminal now reaching seven to eight million annually, congestion has become a problem.

The concession contract for the NAIA Terminal 3, however, has lately been the object of a negative media campaign from certain interest groups. It is alleged that there is "no transparency" to it and it contains provisions that are "overwhelmingly disadvantageous to government."

Tolentino brushed off the allegations, stressing that PIATCO won the contract after it responded to government’s call for new bids apart from the unsolicited proposal tendered by the project’s original proponent, the AEDC.

"It was an open invitation published in newspapers and anybody interested had the opportunity to participate. Nothing could be more transparent," he added.

Moreover, Tolentino pointed out that under the BOT rules, the original proponent had the right to match the challenger’s proposal, but in this case it failed to do so within the period prescribed.

As to the terms and conditions of the contract, Tolentino stressed that these went through stringent evaluation by the ICC-NEDA and its technical board. "They also passed the scrutiny of the Transportation Committee of the House of Representatives which declared the contract ‘regular and above board’ after a series of hearings," the PIATCO spokesman added.

He further emphasized that given the present condition of the existing NAIA Terminal 1, the country badly needs this new facility and PIATCO is here to contribute its share to the realization of the government’s desire to provide the public the services it needs.

"As the new terminal is state-of-the-art and will be equipped with facilities and amenities at par with the best elsewhere in the world, this will certainly help boost the image of the country since the airport provides the first and last impression to visitors," Tolentino said.