Airport board to tackle pact for terminal expansion bid

THE draft concession agreement for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority’s (MCIAA) takes center stage in its Manila board meeting today.

Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, who chairs the MCIAA, said the board has yet to schedule the public bidding for the P17.5 billion airport project. Davide flew to Manila yesterday to attend the board meeting.

He will return to Cebu this Thursday. Earlier MCIA general manager Nigel Paul Villarete said the public bidding will only push through after the finalization of the concession agreement made by the pre-qualified bidders.

Once finalized, Villarete said the Pre-Bidding and Awards Committee (PBAC) chaired by Transportation and Communications Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla will set the bidding within the 45- to 75-day period after the submission of the concession agreement.

The seven bidders are MPIC-JGS Airport Consortium, AAA Airport Partners, Filinvest-CAI Consortium, First Philippine Airports, Premier Airport Group, GMR Infrastructure & Megawide Consortium and San Miguel & Incheon Consortium.

The Mactan-Cebu airport terminal expansion project consists of building an international passenger terminal building that can process eight million passengers per year and the renovation and expansion of its existing terminals.

“I don’t know the final date of the bidding yet,” Davide told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview.

The governor said they will also discuss the status of the province’s two airport projects in Camotes and Bantayan Islands.

Other members of the MCIAA board are Engr. Pericles Dakay and businesswoman Melanie Ng.

They are now officially connected with the MCIAA board, after businessmen Francis Monera and Roger Lim resigned a few months ago.

Under the 1991 MCIAA charter, the law provides for four private sector representatives to the MCIAA board to be recommended by the governor of Cebu.

The governor himself is an automatic member of the MCIAA board. Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos