The Department of Transportation said it may still consider the unsolicited bid of a consortium led by businessman Wilson Tieng to build an international airport in Sangley Point amid the technical and financial issues on a separate proposal by the provincial government of Cavite.
“It’s still on the table. It really depends on how soon the provincial government of Cavite [will act on their proposal],” Transportation Undersecretary for planning and project development Ruben Reinoso said.
Reinoso said the provincial government of Cavite had yet to inform the department on the legal framework it would use for its offer to develop Sangley Point into an international airport for P552.08 billion.
The legal department of DOTr issued a memorandum on June 15, asking the department to refrain from signing an agreement with the Cavite provincial government on the proposed international airport.
The DOTr legal department cited the lack of technical and financial capability of the Cavite provincial government to implement an international airport development project.
Reinoso, when asked if there’s a deadline for the Cavite government on its proposal, said: “We have not discussed that yet, because we wanted to move forward with the very advance proposal of Bulacan [New Manila International Airport project in Bulacan province] and of course the expansion and rehabilitation of Naia [Ninoy Aquino International Airport].”
“As I’ve said, we are prioritizing the government proposal over private sector unsolicited proposal [for Sangley],” he said.
Sangley Airport Infrastructure Group Inc., a consortium led by Solar Group’s All-Asia Resources and Reclamation Corp., submitted an unsolicited proposal to build Philippine Sangley International Airport for $12 billion.
The proposed regional airport hub could accommodate about 120 million passengers a year once it is fully developed.
Under the proposal, the project will start with the reclamation of about 2,500 hectares of land north of the Sangley peninsula, which will be used for the development of airport infrastructure and a commercial establishment to complement the project.
The consortium proposed a concession period of 50 years. It includes the development of airside and landside facilities and transportation infrastructure to service the passengers and ensure accessibility of PSIA.
Another crucial portion of the PSIA development plan is the rehabilitation of Danilo Atienza Air Base, which will be later used as a general aviation airport to decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminals during the project development phase.
Upon inauguration, the Danilo Atienza Air Base area will be transformed into an “aerotropolis” district where service buildings, office towers, hotels, conference centers and other related developments will be established.
The proposed airport will be designed with two parallel independent runways and sufficient airside and terminal capacity to accommodate future demand for domestic, international and transfer traffic, not only for the Philippines but for Southeast Asia.
