THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) doesn’t see any conflict in the construction and rehabilitation of three different airports.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told reporters on Monday this is so since the construction of an airport in Bulacan, the construction of the Clark airport and the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) would be undertaken by three different entities.
The Bulacan airport is being proposed by the San Miguel Corp., while the Naia rehabilitation will also be undertaken by a consortium composed by several companies. The Clark airport is being undertaken by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
“Well, these things can go concurrently. There’s no conflict in terms of the attention because Bulacan will be handled by the private sector and Naia also by the private sector, [while] Clark is being handled by BCDA, so these are separate efforts,” Pernia
explained.
In terms of approval, Pernia said the Bulacan airport has already been endorsed by the inter-agency Investment Coordination Committee Cabinet Committee (ICC-Cabcom).
The project will likely be included in the agenda of the upcoming Neda Board meeting on Wednesday, the first meeting for 2018.
Earlier, the BusinessMirror reported that the New Manila International Airport project involves the construction, operation and maintenance of the new international airport in the
company’s 2,500-hectare property in Bulakan, Bulacan.
The location of the proposed airport is a first-class municipality that is 35 kilometers north of Metro Manila. As of 2015, the municipality has a current population of 76,565.
Of the total land area, around 1,138 hectares will be allocated for the actual airport, with a 100-hectare government center area and 1,132 hectares for other developments.
The airport will have two runways for domestic flights and two runways for international flights. The design allows for an expansion of another two runways. The parallel runways will allow 240 movements per hour, or 60 movements per hour per runway.
Airport facilities will include air cargo, aircraft maintenance, catering/flight kitchen, ground support, airport management and maintenance, rescue and fire-fighting services, police, fuel storage, an air-traffic control complex and fixed-based operators.
These facilities and project details come at a cost of P735.63 billion, using 2017 current prices. The bulk of the amount, or P641.53 billion, will be allocated as capital cost particularly for land development, design, construction, contingency and insurance. The remaining P94.1 billion will be the financing cost for the project.
The Duterte administration has approved a total of 40 projects since assuming office in June 2016, according to data from the Neda.
In its latest update, the Neda said these projects amounted to as much as P1.23 trillion and only two of these will be financed through public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
The bulk of the projects, around 28, will be financed through official development assistance (ODA); seven to be financed by local financing; two each to be financed through PPP and a combination of ODA and local financing; and one to be financed by internally generated funds.
Data showed 20 projects were approved in 2017 while 16 were approved in 2016. Only three projects have been approved this year, as of February and only one does not have a date of approval.
The biggest projects approved by the current administration amounted to P866.41 billion, or over 70 percent of the total approved projects since June 2016.