San Miguel Corp. said it will participate in the separate auctions for the unbundled five regional airports under the public-private partnership program.
“We will join whatever auction the government has to offer. If we lose, then we lose,” San Miguel president Ramon Ang said.
Ang made the statement after the Transportation Department announced that it would bid out the five regional airports separately, a revision of the previous government’s plan to offer the five airports in two bundles.
San Miguel Holdings Corp.-Incheon International Airport Corp. Consortium was one of the five groups that were pre-qualified by the previous administration for the regional airports.
The other groups were Maya Consortium led by Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Philippine Airports Consortium of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., GMR-Megawide Consortium and Filinvest-Jatco-Sojitz Consortium.
The bid submission date for the project was deferred as the Transportation Department needed to get clearances and approvals from the concerned agencies.
The five provincial airports in the original PPP bundles are the P20.26-billion Bacolod-Silay International Airport and the P30.4-billion Iloilo International Airport under package 1, and the P14.62-billion Laguindingan Airport, P2.34-billion New Bohol (Panglao) Airport and P40.57-billion Davao International Airport under package 2.
The winning concessionaires for each airport bundle will handle the operation and maintenance of the airports for 30 years and expand the facilities. Aside from the operation and maintenance, the contract will require the winner to expand the terminal, apron, airside and landside facilities to address future demand.
The improvements are needed to enhance passenger safety and convenience and ensure more efficient airport operations.
GMR-Megawide earlier won the contract to develop and operate the P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
Mactan Airport project will include the construction of a new passenger terminal and renovation of the existing one, as well as the provision of new commercial facilities. This would increase passenger capacity to 12.5 million a year.
The project will be developed under a 25-year concession agreement for the operation of both terminals and commercial outlets. Project completion is expected in 2018.