The Senate Public Services Committee is prodding the Duterte administration to tap private consortiums to front-load a multibillion-peso plan to decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).
“We have to admit that, sometimes, with the help of the private sector, we can implement projects faster, and especially if the consortium is composed of credible investors,” Sen. Grace Poe, the panel’s chairman, told reporters after presiding over a hearing on Senate Resolution 635 on Thursday to address decongestion of the country’s main airport.
Poe, however, voiced reservations over suggestions to relocate the bulk of arrival and departure operations of airlines using Naia terminals to the former United States base facilities at Clark Air Base in Pampanga and Subic Naval Base in Olongapo.
“If we transfer some of these airlines now to Clark and Subic, their passengers may be inconvenienced due to lack of connectivity,” she said, noting that plans to ferry airline passengers by train to inbound and outbound flights at Clark and Subic airports have yet to materialize.
While awaiting completion of train connectivity, Poe said transport authorities must focus their efforts on the expansion of facilities at the Naia complex by tapping a “super consortium” of airline indistry players.
“The real solution there is not to transfer airline terminals but to expand Naia.”
The senator added this was the reason she prefers a consortium of airline industry players to get together and come up with a decongestion plan.
“Six months [to craft a decongestion plan] is okay but, in order to ensure safety and convenience of airline passengers, we can agree to extend it some more. Maybe not one year but definitely a little longer,” Poe said.
She, however, did not completely rule out the option for airlines to relocate operations at Clark or Subic.
“Clark has not just the potential, but also it’s there already and we need to be able to move fast when it comes to the development of the Clark airport and connectivity to the main financial districts in Metro Manila,” she added.
The senator said she fully suports the “outward development” of airline operations, but would want to be sure that facilities are in place.
“Of course, the priorities are basic facilities like airline transfers, remember the distance is about 100 kilometers from Clark to Metro Manila. So, if we transfer domestic airline operations there, it will affect passengers who benefit from domestic flights and low-cost cassiers, including overseas Filipino workers [OFWs],” she said.
Poe foresees OFWs paying additional fare for interconnectivity, which is why they prefer to land at cramped Naia facilities because they are already in Metro Manila.
But once the government’s interconnectivity plans are fulfilled, she envisions these will include “high- speed trains.”
At the same time, the senator suggested that the Duterte administration “seriously consider” unsolicited proposals from the private sector to bankroll Naia’s rehabilitation and maintenance efforts.
“We have the interest of the private sector to be able to help the government…. We have to admit that sometimes with the help of the private sector, we can implement projects faster and especially if the consortium is composed of credible investors,” Poe said.
She addedthe existing Naia complex only has two runways designed to handle 30 million passengers, noting that travelers who used the four terminals has reached nearly 40 million in 2016.
According to her, a “super” consortium composed of some of the country’s biggest conglomerates and GMR-Megawide have submitted to the government their unsolicited proposals separately worth P350 billion and P150 billion, respectively, to upgrade the highly congested Naia.
“For as long as there’s an agreement that they will not overcharge passengers, and there are certain safeguards and guidelines, I think that we should welcome as much interest to be able to rehabilitate Naia,” Poe said.
The senator made the suggestion as the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) finalized plans to rationalize operations at Manila’s four airport terminals, with Terminals 1 and 3 exclusive to international flights, while Terminal 2 and 4 will accomodate domestic flights.
She said this means domestic operations will have to be redistributed within NAIA and Clark airport, which is some 100 kilometers north of Manila, but added that distributing domestic operations is only a “band-aid solution.”
‘Delinquent hangar lessees’
The leadership of the House of Representatives has directed the management of the Miaa to stop issuing IDs to delinquent hangar lessees.
This after Miaa General Manager Eddie Monreal told lawmakers rental fees that need to be collected from companies renting the hangars amount to about P100 million
With this, House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said the Miaa should no longer issue identification cards (IDs) to those companies that are delinquent in the payment of their rentals of hangars.
“Miaa should stop issuing IDs so that these delinquent rental leases would not be allowed to enter the hangar areas anymore and file cases against them,” Alvarez said.
Despite this nonpayment, Monreal said the delinquent companies are still there and that the Miaa has started taking action against them.
Monreal said they would enforce the policy of not issuing the IDs immediately.
Alvarez also urged the Miaa to refer to the Office of the Solicitor General the case regarding the ownership of the Philippine Village Hotel being contested by the Government Service Insurance System and a certain Panlilio situated on a land owned by the Miaa.
The Speaker asked the Miaa if they have intervened in the case or made a manifestation to the warring entities to transfer the building because the Miaa will use the land for a possible terminal site.
Currently, the House Committee on Transportation is hearing the resolution strongly urging the Department of Transportation and the Miaa to present a rationalization program for the Naia terminals to ensure “a safe, efficient, and comfortable passenger experience.”
On Wednesday Alvarez has extended to six months—from original 45 days—the deadline for airline companies to transfer some of their domestic flights to Clark International Airport to decongest Manila’s airport.
4 comments
maganda naman ang suggested ni senator grace
kung gagamitin din tlga ang clark, magiging malaking tulong yun para s mabawasan ang congestion of flights
umeepal na naman si alvarez haysss… sir kung wla ka namn silbi or nagagawa, pwde tumahimik k nlng?
salamat po senator grace poe, sa hearing n po n ayan ikaw lang po ang narinig kong may mgandang comment at plano para s bansa