MacroAsia, China partner have upper hand for Sangley Phase 2 !-- -- MANILA, Philippines The consortium of state-owned China Communications Construction Co. Ltd.

(CCCC) and Lucio Tan's MacroAsia Corp. will have the upper hand for the Sangley Point International Airport (SPIA)'s $6 billion second phase development after securing last Friday a notice of selection and award for the project's first phase from the provincial government of Cavite.

The first phase of the SPIA targeted to break ground by the second quarter, is a $4 billion undertaking involving the development of an interim first runway with an annual design capacity for 25 million passengers. It also includes the new Sangley connector road and bridge, a six-lane highway with urban mass transit connectivity directly linking the Kawit interchange of the Manila-Cavite Expressway to the SPIA.

Phase one is targeted for partial operability by 2022 and for full operability by 2023. "The minute they sign, the consortium should right away start already the bids and awards for the land mass formation here and also the connecting road between Bacoor leading to Sangley. The Bacoor road is the most important part because you can't build anything without the heavy equipment coming in," Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla said during the inauguration of the Sangley Airport Development Project.

"Hopefully, the consortium signs everything by this month. Upon start of construction, at the first year and a half or maybe 24 months at the most depending on the weather, we should be able to have the first runway operational already.

So that automatically expands NAIA's capacity by double," he said. Remulla said the consortium also has to eventually buy the entire Sangley Airport facility from the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

"The government spent P500 million for the rehabilitation of this, so part of the agreement is we will buy this entire facility from the DOTr," he said, referring to the existing Sangley airport inaugurated by President Duterte on Saturday which is currently being utilized for general aviation and commercial cargo operations. Remulla said the second phase of the massive airport development is already being planned as the provincial government of Cavite anticipates demand for the airport to hit 25 million in just the first year of its operation.

It expand the development for a second runway, with an annual design capacity for 75 million passengers. "The same consortium will have the right to first offer for Phase 2," Cavite government public-private partnership selection committee legal officer Jesse Grepo said.

The MacroAsia-CCCC team submitted last Dec. 17 the sole bid for the SPIA, which is being implemented as a local government public-private partnership joint venture by the provincial government of Cavite.

Grepo said the consortium would still have to comply with all post qualification requirements before an official signing of a joint venture contract with the Cavite government is made. Grepo said MacroAsia and CCCC have asked for some time to deliver some of the documents being required by the Cavite government given the coronavirus problem in China.

"The problem is that the nCoV thing in China prevents them from communicating with each other, (since) it should be a face to face thing. It's really a rudimentary financial guarantee that they already have committed to except they can't meet as a board to sign the documents," Remulla said.

"We can't sign the joint venture agreement yet until we get the full financial guarantee from them. But they have expressed it in all our meetings they have guaranteed it.

But as a board action of the subsidiary company, they have yet to meet as a board and it can't be done teleconferencing," he said. CCCC is a state-owned company engaged in investment, design and construction of transportation infrastructure, with experience in both airport and reclamation projects.

CCCC was previously debarred by the World Bank due to alleged fraudulent practices by one of its subsidiaries, China Road and Bridge Corp., with sanctions extending to the entire group under CCCC and all its affiliate companies worldwide.

The debarment was lifted in Jan. 2017 and CCCC has since been allowed to participate in all World Bank Group-financed tenders.

MacroAsia, for its part, has expertise in developing and operating key operating functions in an airport as part of the Lucio Tan conglomerate and as an affiliate of flag carrier Philippine Airlines.

© Pakistan Press International, source Asianet-Pakistan