DOTr asks companies to bid for O&M of regional airports

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is asking relevant companies to pre-qualify and bid for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of five regional airports under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

In an emailed statement, the PPP Center said the DOTr on Tuesday published an invitation to pre-qualify and bid for the airport projects covering the Bacolod-Silay, Davao, Iloilo, Laguindingan and New Bohol (Panglao) airports. The five airports were previously bundled into a single project.

In 2014, the PPP Center said it was intending to bid out the O&M of five regional airports as a single PPP project.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), however, deemed it best to unbundle the airport project and forged the new terms and conditions late last  year.

"The bidding of the five airports will be conducted through the two-stage/two-envelope system under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) law," the PPP Center said.

This means that bidders will first be pre-qualified according to the legal, technical, and financial requirements set by the DOTr and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).

"Only bidders that are pre-qualified can proceed to the next stage of the bidding process, where they will submit their technical and financial proposals which will be evaluated by the Pre-Qualification, Bids and Awards Committee," the PPP Center said.

Interested bidders may buy the invitation documents for P300,000.00, including the invitation to pre-qualify and bid, Project Information Memoranda, and Instruction to Prospective Bidders.

The companies that pre-qualified under the previous administration were:

• Filinvest-Jatco-Sojitz Consortium (composed of Filinvest Development Corporation, Japan Airport Terminal Co. Ltd, and Sojitz Corporation)

• GMR Infrastructure and Megawide Consortium (Megawide Construction Corporation, and GMR Infrastructure Singapore Pte. Limited)

• Maya Consortium (Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and VINCI Airports SAS)

• Philippine Airports Consortium (Metro Pacific Investments Corporation and Philippines Airport Management Company)

• SMHC-IIAC Airport Consortium (San Miguel Holdings Corporation and Incheon International Airport Corporation)

"The DOTr clarified that previously pre-qualified bidders in the bundled projects are also considered pre-qualified in the unbundled projects, provided that there are no changes in their legal, technical, and/or financial capacity," according to the PPP Center. — Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VS, GMA News