THE FILINVEST Group and JG Summit Holdings, Inc. have submitted to the government a P186.64-billion unsolicited proposal to develop Clark International Airport, according to Transportation Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports Roberto C. Lim.

Mr. Lim said the Department of Transportation (DoTr) is currently evaluating the Gotianun and Gokongwei tandem’s unsolicited proposal for the expansion of Clark’s passenger terminal building, which was submitted in early January.

“It’s a submission by Filinvest and JG Summit (worth) P187 billion,” Mr. Lim told reporters at the sidelines of a forum organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI).

The unsolicited proposal has a concession period of 50 years and covers the improvement of current facilities at the Clark International Airport; capacity augmentation in five phases to accommodate 36 million passengers annually; and operations and maintenance of the airport.

The Duterte government has been promoting the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark as an alternative gateway to help decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.

The airport, located within the Clark Freeport Zone, is 43.2 nautical miles northwest of Manila.

Officials of Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) and JG Summit Holdings, Inc. met with President Rodrigo R. Duterte in Malacañang last Dec. 19, 2016.

A short video uploaded by RTVM showed FDC President and CEO Josephine Gotianun-Yap, JG Summit President Lance Y. Gokongwei and JG Summit Chairman James L. Go, were present during the meeting.

Ms. Gotianun-Yap was then quoted as saying, “We are currently talking with the world class terminal operators to fast track the project (to develop Clark).”

This is not the first time the Filinvest group expressed interest in an airport project. FDC teamed up with Singapore’s Changi Airports, Inc. to submit P14-billion bid for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport expansion project in December 2013. However, it lost out to the consortium of Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure Ltd., which offered P14.4 billion.

At the same time, GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp.(GMCAC), which currently operates the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, said their unsolicited proposal to develop Clark last year was rejected by the government.

“We submitted a business concept for Clark to develop and operate it like Mactan. They have to check because it is part of the priorities. To be honest, it is like we were rejected. We understand but we hope they launch it immediately because NAIA needs reinforcement,” GMCAC President Manuel Louie B. Ferrer told reporters.

NAIA, which is the fifth-largest airport in Southeast Asia, accounts for nearly 90% of all domestic passengers in the Philippines and more than 80% of all international passengers. NAIA recently reported that it handled 39.5 million passengers in 2016, including 20.6 million domestic and 18.9 million international passengers.

However, DoTr’s Mr. Lim said the GMR-Megawide consortium proposal was “discontinued” because it was submitted when the Clark “was not yet open for PPP,” referring to the government’s public-private partnership scheme.

Mr. Lim said GMR-Megawide can submit its proposal again since the project is still “open.”

“I think the government wants to make a decision this year. One of the competitive actions of the administration is to complete projects. We would like to start within the year… it depends on the project but we certainly plan to finish them before Duterte administration ends,” the DoTr official said.

Clark International Airport has two 3,200-meter parallel runways, one of which was earlier set to be extended to 4,000 meters to accommodate new generation wide-body aircraft. The primary runway is 3,200 meters long and 60 meters wide, while the secondary runway is the same length but is 45 meters wide.

Currently, the airport hosts carriers such as Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, AirAsia, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Dragon, Jin Air, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Tigerair.

Current capacity at the Clark airport is 4.2 million passengers per annum.

03 March 2017
By Imee Charlee C. Delavin