“IT was always P17.5 billion.”
Gov. Hilario Davide III yesterday said there should be no confusion about the planned expansion of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA).
Davide, who sits in the MCIA Authority board, said “he had no idea” where some parties got the report that the project cost had ballooned from P5 billion to P17.5 billion.
He said MCIA general manager Nigel Paul Villarete always referred to a P17.5 billion budget during board meetings. The airport expansion was announced last year by President Aquino as a priority under th Private Public Partnership (PPP) program.
“Where did they get the data for the P5 billion? In fact I asked GM Paul Villarete where that came from because it came out in the papers but it was always P17.5 billion as stated by the DOTC for the expansion project,” he told reporters.
A P5 billion amount, he said, would not be anough to cover the project will transform the MCIA into the country’s second largest aviation hub.
“I don’t know if it got discussed in the last board meeting because I was here attending to the sea mishap but P5 billion is too small for a huge project,” he said.
“They will be expanding the terminal, even the runway could be part of it so it will require a huge budget,” he added.
Delayed project
Davide said the timetable of the expansion might be delayed following the postponement of the submission of bids for the project.
“Well, with the suspension now, the timetable for its operations will be affected because I understand that the bidding was supposed to be in September or October,” he said.
“I really don’t know the substance of the complaint of the resident from Bulacan or why he is questioning the bidding or why he wants the bidding stopped,” he added.
Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya yesterday announced that the deadline for submission of bids for the P17.5 billion MCIA project has been moved to a later date due to changes in the PPP’s project’s concession agreement.
However, Villarete said the Pre-qualification, Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC) already completed the second round meetings with the pre-qualified bidders.
The MCIA expansion involves construction of a world-class international passenger terminal building with a capacity of eight million passengers.
It also includes the renovation of the terminal building which exceeded its 4.5 million passenger limit last year.