DOTC cautions Parañaque on NAIA closure

Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez yesterday cautioned Parañaque City authorities against the issuance of what he described as an irresponsible statement, a threat to close the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for failure to pay P624 million in taxes to the city government.

Alvarez said that he would first talk with Airport General Manager Edgardo Manda to find out if NAIA has indeed incurred arrears in taxes amounting to some P624 million, and to determine the reason why it failed to pay the realty taxes since 1992 to the Parañaque City government.

Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez has written Manda to inform him that they are set to proceed with confiscation proceedings against the airport, saying that they were left with no option but to sell at public auction the NAIA lands to recover the unpaid taxes.

Should Marquez make good his threat, operations of the NAIA will be completly paralyzed as the international runway will have to be cordoned off. Marquez said they are planning to fence off the NAIA to show that they are bent on collecting the taxes.

NAIA is part of Pasay City and Parañaque City. Realty taxes are paid by the NAIA to the two cities.

At the same time, Alvarez advised critics of the new airport Terminal III to go to court if they have complaints against its proponents.

"If you have proper course of action, go to court," Alvarez said during an interview upon his arrival from Malaysia where he attended a conference on Asean information technology.

Full-page ads in several dailies assailed Alvarez for his alleged close relationship with owners of the Philippine International Airport Terminal Corporation (PIATCO), builders of the Terminal III.

Alvarez added that it would benefit no one if the critics air their grievances through the media. The terminal, with a capacity of 10 million passengers a year, is scheduled to be turned over by its Japanese builders to PIATCO in October 2002 and will be in operations in July 2003.

PIATCO is the head of a conglomerate that put up $500 million to build the terminal on a build-operate-transfer scheme. The company has been criticized because the contract it signed with the government was lopsided in favor of PIATCO.

The project came under fire from critics after some concessionaires found out that they would soon be out of business once PIATCO takes over operations of the new international airport terminal. – Rey Arquiza