The Transportation Department said it will no longer entertain the separate unsolicited proposals of JG-Filinvest Group and Megawide Group to develop Clark International Airport to avoid any legal complications.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the proposals were not rejected, but the government considered that it would be more appropriate to undertake the project by itself.
“It’s not rejected. I talked to them that the government will pursue it [development of Clark] to avoid problematic situation,” Tugade said, referring to JG-Filinvest and Megawide group.
He said the government’s decision to develop CIA, instead of turning it over to the private sector was to prevent the filing of a case in court.
Tugade’s statement came after both groups were seeking original proponent status for the unsolicited proposal of Clark airport development.
Megawide Construction Corp. and partner GMR Infrastructure Ltd. of India said they submitted an unsolicited proposal for the development of Clark airport on July 27, 2016.
The consortium, which won the development of Mactan Cebu International Airport, came up with a P200-billion 50-year master plan based on independent studies of Clark and its potential as a gateway. It proposed six phases of development that would provide a saturation phase of 100 million passengers per annum.
The proposal does not require any kind of government subsidy, guarantee or mandatory movement of airlines from Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Parañaque City to Clark.
The consortium would also commit to an annual share of airport revenues to the government.
Another group, the consortium of JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Filinvest Development Corp., also submitted an unsolicited proposal to build a P187-billion world-class airport in Clark Freeport Zone by 2020.
The group said the 50-year concession would start with an initial capacity for 8 million passengers compared to the existing traffic of 1 million.
The master plan allows CIA to expand its terminals and runways to easily accommodate the traffic growth over the next 50 years.
The consortium committed to a robust and regular capacity augmentation program to ensure the CIA would continually meet the passenger service performance standards of world-class airports.
Airlines operating in Clark include Qatar Airways, Cebu Pacific, Tigerair Air, Jin Air, Asiana Airlines, Dragon Air, Air Asia Berhad and Emirates Airlines.
These airlines mount flights to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Macau, Pudong, Incheon, Doha, Dubai, Davao, Cebu and Kalibo.