Mactan-Cebu International Airport
At least seven companies want to invest in the Mactan Cebu International Airport.
The investors’ interests vary from developing portions of the airport to transferring it to Cordova town.
Since November last year, the office of Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) general manager Nigel Paul Villarete has received four letters of intent (LOI) from private companies.
SM Prime Holdings, Robinsons Land Corporation, AboitizLand, and Filinvest have written the MCIAA to propose partnership, Villarete said.
The Ayala Group posted an online report expressing interest to invest in the airport, Villarete added.
San Miguel Corp. and business tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP) have also expressed interest.
“MVP dropped by my office in one of his trips to Cebu,” Villarete said.
In a letter dated Nov. 3, 2011 to Villarete and Cebu City Rep. Tomas Osmeña, Hans Sy said SM Prime Holdings wants “to participate in MCIA’s fund-raising efforts.”
Sy also also referred to the proposal “to relocate the MCIA and build a larger and more modern facility on reclaimed land in the nearby municipality of Cordova, Cebu.”
Robinsons Land in a letter dated Dec. 7, 2011 expressed “its serious interest to participate in the privatization of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA), if and when it should materialize.”
AboitizLand, Inc. requested in a letter dated February 20, 2012 “for a site inspection of said area in order to see the area from as much perspective as you can allow.”
AboitizLand aims to “claim” 26 hectares of the northeast ramp, Villarete said.
AboitizLand which manages the Mactan Economic Processing Zone (MEPZ) II in Basak, Lapu-Lapu City has an existing partnership with MCIAA.
The 63-hectare MEPZ II is located four kilometers from the airport.
MEPZ is home to multinational companies engaged in electronics, automotive supplies, medical equipments, home furnishings and garments manufacturing, and business process outsourcing (BPO).
Filinvest also wants to “develop” a 25-hectare parcel of land northeast of the airport.
Filinvest Land, Inc. First Vice President Tristan Las Marias sent a letter on March 29, 2012 saying they “would like to start discussions for a possible joint venture agreement with MCIAA” for the 25-hectare parcel northeast of MCIA, the same area eyed by AboitizLand.
Villarete clarified that potential investors need to follow certain steps under the National Economic Development Authority’s (NEDA) Public Private Partnership (PPP) program.
The PPP program was created in 2010 by Executive Order no. 8. It reorganized and renamed the Build-Operate and Transfer Center to the Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines and transferred jurisdiction from the Department of Trade and Industry to the National Economic Development Authority (Neda).
Apart from a letter of intent, private firms need to submit a proposal to and follow the required process of the PPP Center, Villarete said.
He said the proposal will be reviewed by the Investment Coordination Committee, an advisory body of the NEDA Board. /Jessa Agua, Correspondent
Posted on May 10, 2012
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