Sangley Airport redevelopment stalled after negotiations collapsed —Gov. Remulla

The redevelopment of Sangley Airport into an international gateway faced a setback as negotiations between the provincial government of Cavite and project proponents Lucio Tan-led Macroasia Corp. and China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (CCCC) collapsed.

In a Facebook post, Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla said his office approved on Jan. 26 the recommendation of the Cavite Provincial Government Special Selection Committee for “the non-approval of the redevelopment of the former airbase as presented by the applying parties.”

This means that the notice of award given to Macroasia and CCCC for the P208.5-billion contract to develop the Sangley Airport into an international gateway last February 2020 is canceled. 

Remulla said the decision was due to “various deficiencies of the submission of requirements to conclude the Joint Venture Agreement for the Sangley Point International Airport.”

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Macroasia confirmed it received a letter, on January 27, through e-mail from the provincial government of Cavite.

The letter, the company said, states that “pursuant to the recommendation of the Public-Private Partnership Selection Committee, the Notice of Award for the Sangley Point International Airport Project issued on 12 February 2020 was canceled.”

To recall, the consortium of MacroAsia and CCCC were the sole bidders for the Sangley Airport project when bids were opened in December 2019.

The Sangley International Airport project was envisioned as a joint venture between the private sector and the Cavite provincial government. 

In such a setup, the project does not need to secure the approval of other government agencies such as the National Economic and Development Authority.

The private partner will build the airport and the facilities, while the provincial government will reclaim and lease the land to the winning bidder.

“While it does cancel the negotionations, the Project will restart and hopefully have a successful negotiation with any qualified partner by October 2021,” Remulla said.

“I still believe that a new international airport is important for the country in the long run and it must be stressed that cancellation is not in prejudice of anyone applying again,” the Cavite governor said.

The expanded Sangley Airport will have four runways and will be able to accommodate up to 100 million passengers a year.

The project’s first phase involves the construction of a runway, connector road, and bridge to the Kawit segment of the CAVITEx.

The Cavite provincial government had planned to have the Sangley International Airport partially operational by 2022, with full operations eyed in 2023.

The Cavite government originally intended to do the project on its own. But Remulla then said the “government bidding process is too cumbersome so we would rather that they lease the land from us and they put up an airport company before. Everything would be private.”

The Palace had given the go-ahead for the project despite the United States' imposition of sanctions against Chinese firms associated with the building of artificial islands in the South China Sea, including several subsidiaries of CCCC. 

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) took over Sangley Airport’s construction after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered to have the project completed by November 2019.

Remulla earlier said the Cavite government will reimburse DOTr’s expenses once the Sangley Airport expansion is ready to be implemented. —KG, GMA News