Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) is pulling out of the project to rehabilitate and operate Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
In a regulatory disclosure, MPIC confirmed a newspaper report that it is withdrawing from the project and said it has already advised its consortium partners of its intent to withdraw. No other details were provided.
MPIC chairman Manuel Pangilinan earlier said the company was considering the possibility of pulling out of the NAIA consortium amid pending issues faced by the group’s proposal with the government.
The NAIA Consortium—composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group, Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and MPIC—submitted an unsolicited proposal in 2018 to rehabilitate, upgrade, expand, operate, and maintain the country’s main air hub for 15 years.
NAIA Consortium was granted original proponent status in August 2018 after it submitted its proposal in February 2018. In July 2019, however, the proposal was returned for revision following a decision to require all proponents of unsolicited airport projects to pattern their concession agreements after the operation and maintenance contract of Clark International Airport.
The unsolicited proposal was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority Board in November 2019.
The P102-billion proposal involves expanding and interconnecting the existing terminals of NAIA, upgrading airside facilities, developing commercial facilities to increase airline and airport efficiencies, enhancing passenger comfort and experience, and elevating the status of NAIA as the country’s premier international gateway.
These improvements, the consortium earlier said, would be implemented with minimal disruption to ongoing airport operations.
The rehabilitation was expected to boost NAIA’s passenger capacity to 47 million from the current 30.5 million in two years and to 64 million in four years.
Aside from NAIA Consortium, another consortium, that of Megawide Construction Corporation and India’s GMR Infrastructure Ltd., has also submitted an unsolicited proposal to decongest and rehabilitate NAIA for an estimated project cost of US$3 billion (about P156 billion).
Pangilinan had earlier expressed wariness over the business environment under the Duterte administration, saying he would rather invest in industries deemed less risky. He refused to elaborate on what these businesses are.
President Rodrigo Duterte has been calling out Maynilad, a company that Pangilinan chairs, and Manila Water for their supposed “onerous” concession deals with government.
