MPIC, San Miguel, Megawide still keen on regional airports
Posted on January 10, 2017
http://www.bworldonline.com/
AT LEAST THREE of the five pre-qualified bidders for the development of five regional airports are still interested in vying for the public-private partnership (PPP) projects, which have recently been unbundled by the government.
“Yes, SMC will join all gov’t bidding to support,” San Miguel Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang said in a mobile phone message on Monday.
MPIC President and CEO Jose Ma. K. Lim, for his part, said the infrastructure conglomerate “will register its interest and review the new guidelines as soon as these are made available.”
Transportation Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports Roberto C. Lim said late last week that the government will bid out the regional airports projects individually.
Rolled out during the Aquino administration, the regional airports project was previously bundled into two packages — the first with the P20.26-billion Bacolod-Silay Airport and the P30.40-billion Iloilo Airport, and the second comprising the P40.57-billion Davao Airport, the P14.62-billion Laguindingan Airport and the P2.34-billion New Bohol (Panglao) Airport. The bidding did not push through.
Mr. Lim said the Department of Transportation (DoTr) is looking to issue fresh invitations for firms interested to bid within the first quarter of 2017.
Megawide Construction Corp. — whose partnership with GMR won the bid to develop the new Mactan-Cebu International Airport — is also pursuing its plan to bid for the airport projects.
“We remain interested in the bidding for the unbundled airports but since these will be on new terms, we will need to study each project first,” GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC) President Manuel Louie B. Ferrer, who is also Megawide chief marketing officer said via text.
Other firms pre-qualified by the previous government for the airport projects were the Aboitiz-led Maya Consortium and the Gotianun-led Filinvest-Jatco-Sojitz Consortium. They were not immediately available for comment on Monday.
The DoTr earlier said the law “does not allow automatic pre-qualification for the new round of bidding for the five regional airports.”
MPIC is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being PLDT, Inc. and Philex Mining Corp. Hastings Holdings, Inc. — a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc. — maintains interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.
