The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is fast tracking the privatization of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) with the completion of the terms of references (TOR) of its contract, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista announced Friday, Jan. 13.
“We will work to fast-track the privatization of the NAIA, because it remains the primary gateway to the Philippines,” he assured the Senate Committee on Public Services yesterday.
Being the only major airport in Metro Manila that has breached its rated capacity, it’s high time to modernize and expand the NAIA, Bautista maintained.
Apart from the Clark International Airport (CRK), NAIA can only handle 40 to 44 movements of aircraft an hour.
Should its privatization push through, the NAIA can increase its aircraft capacity to 50 or even 55 aircraft movements.
“We have two airports that are across each other. We can only handle 40 to 44 movements per hour, but with the new technology, we should be able to increase this to 50, or even 55,” he noted.
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With the amendment to the implementing rules and and regulations (IRR) of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, any dispute or issue between the government and private sector will go through arbitration.
“We will fast-track the conditions of the terms of reference," the DOTr Secretary reiterated.
"And also, will allow arbitration, in case there’s dispute between the government and the private sector,” he stressed, adding that such provisions are internationally adopted.
DOTr plans to formulate the TOR with the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The past administration sought to privatize NAIA's rehabilitation but failed.
At the time, the project attracted the interest of two consortia - the NAIA Consortium, composed of the country's biggest conglomerates, and the Megawide Construction Corp. and India-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd. Consortium, which built the new Mactan terminal facility.
The NAIA Consortium, composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp. and JG Summit Holdings Inc., proposed to rehabilitate the NAIA for P102 billion.
However, the project did not materialize because the consortium was not confident about the project financing.
For its part, the Megawide-GMR consortium also submitted a $3 billion proposal to rehabilitate and upgrade NAIA, with a contract period of 18 years.
However, the government revoked the oroginal proponent status granted to the consortium.
Rehabilitating the NAIA will decongest the country's main gateway and resolve capacity constraints by reconfiguring and renovating its facilities.
The project will enable the airport to meet the growing domestic as well as international passenger demand.