Controversial bidding for Mactan airport terminal expansion finally ends as consortium that gave the highest offer named winner

Artist’s impression on how the Megawide-GMR consortium envisions the look of the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Two of the top executives of Megawide-GMR were all aglow as they faced the television cameras for an interview aired live from the trading floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange at 3 pm yesterday.

Warren de Guzman, who anchored the interview for the ABS-CBN News Channel, couldn’t help but notice how Oliver Tan and Andrew Harrison, chief financial officer of Megawide Construction Corp. and deputy CEO of GMR, respectively were brimming with confidence as they fielded questions about their P14.4 billion bid for the construction and operation of the expanded Mactan Cebu International Airport – a flagship public-private partnership project of the Aquino administration that has taken flak owing to the delay in the awarding of the project to the winning bidder.

“We would like to reiterate that the GMR-Megawide consortium participated in this open and transparent bidding process by faithfully observing all the financial, technical and legal requirements set forth by the DOTC (Department of Transportation and Communications) through the PBAC (Prequalification, Bids and Awards Committee) so we have full confidence on how the PBAC will resolve this issue,” Tan said without dropping any hint that they already know that the board of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) has already given its imprimatur to award them the project.

Cebu Daily News sources separately confirmed the MCIA board’s decision.

“The Board concurred at noontime today the recommendation of the PBAC to award the project to Megawide,” a DOTC official privy to MCIA matters told CDN via instant messaging.

The other source, a Cebu-based official, also confirmed the report, but declined to give further details as MCIA General Manager Nigel Paul Villarete is the only person authorized to speak to the media.

Villarete was not taking calls as his phone was switched off yesterday. The DOTC was likewise tight-lipped on the decision.

In an earlier interview, Villarete said the DOTC and the bid winner are expected to sign the project Concession Agreement 30 days after the official awarding of the bid.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya presided over yesterday’s MCIA board meeting in Manila where the awarding of the bid was announced, sources said.

Abaya was in Cebu Wednesday to inaugurate the new passenger terminal at Cebu City’s Pier 1. He told reporters that the PBAC will come up with a resolution “this week” and its recommendation will be subject to the approval of the MCIA board.

“I will be waiting for it by this week or next week. It won’t take longer than next week for sure because they told me it is almost done,” he told reporters at the Capitol Wednesday.

Megawide Construction Corp. chief communications officer Louie Ferrer said they are still awaiting the Notice of Award from DOTC. He said however, that they will be offering a Mass today at the Basilica del Sto. Niño as a way of thanksgiving that the long delayed process has finally come to a conclusion.

Serge seeks TRO

The battle for the Mactan airport, however, is far from over.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III made good his promise to sue the government should it decide to award the contract to Megawide-GMR

On the eve of the MCIA Board meeting, Osmeña went to the Supreme Court and sought a temporary restraining order and or a writ of preliminary injunction to stop the DOTC, the MCIA and its PBAC from issuing a Notice of Award or executing a Concession Agreement in favor of the GMR Megawide consortium.

“The Filipino people, especially the Cebuanos, do not deserve another PIATCO. Perhaps more importantly, they do not need to have to be serviced by an operator with a derogatory track record and a recent history of financial operating losses,” he said in his pleading dated April 3.

Osmeña was referring to the controversy involving the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (PIATCO) of which the government was ordered by the Court of Appeals to pay over $371 million as just compensation for its takeover of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3).

Osmeña in an earlier interview claimed that Megawide-GMR would have been disqualified if the DOTC had stuck to its conflict of interest rules.

“I want to show that the DOTC does not have the discretion to apply their own rules,” he said.

“You don’t have the discretion to say that ‘oh I know we have this rule, but you are exempted’.

They don’t have that discretion. If the rule says it’s gotta be this way. You should implement the rule right away, that it doesn’t matter to me what they announce this week, next week, on who the winner is, that’s irrelevant, you should have been disqualified.”

Andrew Harrison, deputy CEO of GMR, yesterday reiterated the consortium’s sound experience in undertaking the MCIA project.

“It is a great privilege for us to be here as part of this bid… but I’d like to stress that we had a lot of experience in bidding for international airports. We held four international airports concurrently which we won via open competitive bid processes,” he told the ABS-CBN News Channel.

“I’d like to state that the conduct of how this bid was executed was of the highest order. In fact, it was most exemplary. We found their attention to detail, their focus, their transparency, the quality of responses that they gave, the quality of questions was extremely high and the DOTC must be commended for this effort. We would say that if we were the highest bidder or if were the lowest bidder, we would still state the same position.”

In an earlier interview, Harrison said their design will make the Mactan-Cebu International Airport the first resort-airport in the world with a distinct “Cebu feel” to it.

“We want to work with Cebuanos and achieve that very ‘Cebuano’ feel into the airport. The airport terminals will reflect the rich Cebuano heritage expressed through a state of the art design stitched smoothly into place that will evoke the same relaxing feel as when you are in a resort,” he said.

Based on their conceptual design, the expansion will feature 20 aircraft parking stands with aero bridges and 13 aircraft parking stands that will be served by bus transfers. A mall will also be built within the facility which will offer shopping and dining facilities among others.

Harrison said that they are ready to start developing as soon as they can with the funds already on standby with at least three banks interested to provide loan funding for the project.

“We have already secure funding for the entire project as well as have the check of P14.4 billion ready for turn over to DOTC,” said Harrison.