SC rules against bid of AEDC to operate NAIA 3
The Supreme Court has dashed the bid of
In a 62-page decision penned by Associate Justice Minita Chico-Nazario, the Court voted 7-4 to dismiss the consolidated case involving two petitions, including one filed by AEDC as the project’s original proponent.
The SC also dismissed the second petition in the consolidated case – the intervention by former Ilocos Sur Rep. Salacnib Baterina to stop the payment of compensation to the Philippine International Airport Terminals Co. (Piatco).
AEDC had filed its petition to run NAIA 3 after the Court ruled on the main case in May 2003.
In that case, the Court ruled that although the contract to award the NAIA 3 project to Piatco was null and void, government should pay just compensation to cover the cost of putting up the project.
AEDC, in its petition for mandamus and prohibition, theorized that being the recognized and unchallenged original proponent, it should be given the clear and vested statutory right to the award of the Naia Terminal 3 project.
“The petition of AEDC should be dismissed for lack of merit, as being as it is substantially and procedurally flawed,” the Court said. “The rights or privileges of an original proponent of an unsolicited proposal for an infrastructure project are never meant to be absolute.”
The Court said that a contrary ruling would potentially hold the government “hostage” to lop-sided “unsolicited projects” in the future.
According to the Court, AEDC had failed to match the more advantageous proposal submitted by Piatco by the time the 30-day working period expired on
The Court added that AEDC “cannot now lay claim to the award of the project” without exercising its right to match the most advantageous proposal. It added that the bidding process on the project was finished after the project’s award to Piatco, even if eventually, the said award was nullified and voided.
“The nullification of the award to Piatco did not revive the proposal nor re-open the bidding. AEDC cannot insist that this Court turn back the hands of time and award the Naia IPT III project to it as if the bid of Piatco never existed and the award of the project to Piatco did not take place. Such is a simplistic approach to a very complex problem that is the NAIA IPT III project,” the Court said.
According to the Court, the physical structures comprising the project are “already substantially built”, and there is almost nothing left for AEDC to construct.
“Hence, the project could no longer be awarded to AEDC based on the theory of legal impossibility of performance,” the Court said.
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