Presidential Adviser on Poverty Alleviation Larry Gadon on Monday, Dec. 18, said he has advised President Marcos to extend the deadline of the submission of bids for the P171-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) rehabilitation project to give all a “fair chance” and avoid suspicions of rigging.
In a statement, the official expressed worry that if the deadline set by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is not extended despite a push also by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), this will tend to “favor” only two of prospective project proponents.
“Why the rush? That's (a) P171 billion project. May favored bidder ba ‘yan kaya ayaw magpa-extension (Is the extension being denied because there’s a favored bidder)?,” he asked, adding that Marcos has already been apprised of the developments.
“I sent a mesage of recommendation to the Office of the President expressing my adherence to the recommendation of the ADB to grant the suggested extension. After all, the ADB itself is the prime mover of this extension,” he said.
Gadon lamented that the original deadline of Dec. 27 may be “tailor fit to a favored bidder” because there are 340 pages of bid documents needed to be accomplished and complied with by the prospective bidders.
“The extension will also avoid possible suspicion that a favored proponent is being tailored fit to grab the award,” he explained.
The selection process for the project’s winning bidder “must not create any suspicion of rigging” as it is worth P171 billion.
“The extension would give a fair chance to other proponents to submit a well-studied financial and technical aspects of works which will ultimately redound to the advantage of the government and the public,” he said.
On Sunday, Dec. 17, Gadon and two lawmakers urged the DOTr to heed the advice of the ADB to extend the bidding for the NAIA rehabilitation project to Jan. 29, 2024 to ensure due diligence and to avoid perceptions of favoritism.
This came after the surfacing of an ADB internal memo proposing the extension so that more bidders can prepare the necessary documents and participate in the bidding process.
The memo stated that increased competition would ensure better financial outcome for the government.
It also added that four more bidders for the project are seeking the extension.
Eight firms had previously bought bid documents for the project. These are Asian Airport Consortium, Turkish firm Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp., India’s GMR Group, Turkish conglomerate Limak Holding A.S., Manila International Airport Consortium, San Miguel Corp., and Spark 888 Management Inc.