The government withdrew the original proponent status it granted to NAIA Consortium for the upgrade and rehabilitation of Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
“Upon the recommendation of the NAIA government negotiating panel, the Manila International Airport Authority on July 7, 2020 has terminated negotiations with the NAIA Consortium and withdraws/revokes its original proponent status,” the Transportation Department said in a statement.
NAIA Consortium in a letter sent to the National Economic and Development Authority on July 6 said it would have difficulty in obtaining financing for the NAIA Rehabilitation Project under the terms and conditions approved by the Investment Coordination Committee and the NEDA board, unless they were revised in accordance with their proposal.
The P102-billion NAIA rehabilitation project was proposed by NAIA Consortium that included Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp. and JG Summit Holdings Inc.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp. earlier backed out from the consortium over unresolved issues with the government.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III earlier said the Transportation Department was in talks with two more potential proponents for the NAIA project.
“These two other proponents are willing to get into agreement with the government which are very similar to the terms of agreement with Clark airport,” Dominguez said.
The NAIA project aims to alleviate the worsening air traffic congestion at the main gateway and resolve capacity constraints by reconfiguring and renovating facilities and enhancing operation and maintenance. This will allow for the accommodation of more traffic.
The rehabilitation project also aims to broaden NAIA’s role as a key economic and tourism driver for Metro Manila and the whole Philippines, deliver capital infrastructure investment to improve the airport’s efficiency, and increase its capacity to meet the growing passenger demand from the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region.
It was supposed to be implemented in three phases from 2021 to 2024.