A consortium of seven conglomerates said it is open to negotiate with the government under the Build-Operate-Transfer Law for any changes in its unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate and expand Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Naia Consortium spokesman Jimbo Reverente said in a statement the BoT rules call for negotiations between the proponent and the government to find the best iteration of a new Naia. That is where changes or “tweaking” would happen, he said.
“For us, our proposal provides the short, medium and long-term solutions to Naia’s problems. However, we are flexible and can adjust to what the government wants. Otherwise, we can proceed to deliver on our promise as soon as we are cleared for take-off,” he said.
The consortium’s statement came after Megawide GMR raised an alarm over the former’s intention to “tweak” their submitted proposal for the rehabilitation of Naia.
“The seven Filipino conglomerates comprising the Naia Consortium stand on uncompromising legal compliance for the approval of its proposal,” Reverente said.
The consortium’s members are Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., AEDC, Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
Reverent said the country urgently needs a proper national gateway now and asked all parties to help, instead of impeding the process to move forward. He said this would allow the country, the Filipino flyers and the foreign tourists and investors to have finally a proper welcome and send-off venue. Darwin G. Amojelar
“These seven conglomerates set aside their individual competitive spirit for country. We ask others to do the same or at least let the proper process take its course before raising questions that are based on speculation,” he said.
Reverente said if the government would expedite the approval process and give the notice to proceed by early next year, the consortium could expand Naia’s terminal capacity from the present 31 million passengers per year to 47 million by 2020 and to 65 million by 2022.
Naia accommodated 42 million passengers in 2017. This year, the throughput is expected to hit 44 million.
“If we do nothing now to improve capacity, our growing passenger volume will continue to suffer and our economic growth will be hampered. In our eyes, this is a national crisis,” he said.,
The consortium is waiting to be awarded an original proponent status after its proposal was recently declared as “complete” in terms of documentation, a milestone in the approval process.
The group proposed a 35-year concession period. It committed to spend P100 billon for the first phase of the project and P250 billion for the second phase.