What’s keeping the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) expansion from taking off?
There are so many givens that the expansion of the MCIA passenger terminal should have started yesterday. Nobody is denying that the current state of the airport – the passenger terminal to be specific has deteriorated and this may hinder further growth of the facility in terms of domestic and international passenger traffic.
The roll-out of the project as a Private-Public Partnership project has been hailed, but lo and behold, when will the real work – construction work start?
The bidding for the P17.5 billion MCIA expansion project proceeded last December 12, 2013.
There were seven groups who submitted technical proposals that have passed stringent evaluation by the Bids and Awards Committee of the Dept. of Transportation and Communication (DOTC).
When the financial proposals were opened, the consortium of GMR-Megawide turned out to have the best premium bid of P14.4 billion.
Coming in second is Filinvest-Changi Airport consortium with P13.99 billion.
From the common tao’s point of view, awarding of the project to the group that gave the best premium offer should have come next. But three months have passed and things are still in a gridlock, with Filinvest-Changi consortium contesting GMR-Megawide before the DOTC.
The silence of the DOTC on the matter and the obvious delays in acting on either awarding the project to GMR-Megawide or to give due course to the protest of Filinvest-Changi further muddles the issue.
The public and other stakeholders cannot be blamed if they suspect that aside from the public bidding, there could be another form of ‘bidding’ at the back stage – one that is not transparent and not accountable to the public.
Note that the project is big, and understandably the profits of this enterprise could also run in the billions. No big deal if some group makes mega bucks from honest business. While further speculations are not encouraged, the delays and the propaganda war between GMR-Megawide and Filinvest-Changi is more than just washing dirty linen in public – it is a public disservice.
It has not been forgotten that the project has been prioritized because it can spur development, not just for Cebu, but the rest of the Visayas and a greater part of Mindanao.
On March 12, 2014, Congress through the committee on transportation will start its probe on the MCIA expansion bidding controversy based on House Resolution 782 introduced by Cebuano congressmen.
Many quarters are saying the probe may further delay the start of the expansion project.
With all this development, the MCIA may have to remain dilapidated, unable to give comfort to over 6 million passengers squeezed into the present terminal with an annual capacity of only 4.5 million.