The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board has approved the report on negotiation results for the Bulacan International Airport (BIA) project, with the project proponent assuming the total project cost of P735.63 billion.
The NEDA Board in a meeting on December 21 approved the concession agreement between the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and original proponent San Miguel Holdings Corporation (SMHC).
SMHC submitted the unsolicited public-private partnership (PPP) proposal involving the construction, operation, and maintenance of the airport, and will assume the total project cost through an unsolicited Build-Operate-Transfer arrangement.
The BIA project, to be located on a 2,500-hectare piece of land in Bulakan, Bulacan, north of Manila Bay, will see the construction of a terminal, parallel runways, and an airport toll road.
Once completed, the airport can accommodate 100 million passengers annually by its opening year of 2023.
Key features of the airport’s CA include no government guarantee or any form of subsidy.
“These are substantial features, proving the project is adequately advantageous to the government,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said in a statement. “They certainly raise the bar on unsolicited PPP projects.”
Following the NEDA Board meeting, DOTr will proceed to finalize the CA and convey the NEDA Board’s approval of the report to SMHC.
The revised CA will then go through a final review by the Office of the Solicitor-General and the Department of Finance before it is advertised to parties for a Swiss challenge.
