Infrawatch PH, an infrastructure-oriented thinktank, is urging President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to make the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) part of his priority infrastructure projects in his first 100 days in office.
“There is no quibbling around it: one of the original sins of the previous administration has been the cancelation of the NAIA rehabilitation PPP,” Infrawatch PH convenor Terry Ridon said.
“What was initially touted as a flagship project with the private sector has been reduced to a publicly-funded small-scale endeavor in the end,” said Ridon, a former House transportation committee member.
Ridon said the Marcos administration “should undo this blunder” and restart the upgrade of NAIA.
In 2020, the government, through the Department of Transportation and the Manila International Airport Authority, ended negotiations with the super consortium of conglomerates for the P102 billion redevelopment proposal for NAIA.
In the same year, Megawide and its partner GMR, which proposed to undertake a major overhaul of the airport, lost its original proponent status.
“The previous government had two chances to rehabilitate NAIA: first with the MVP consortium and second with Megawide Corp. Mr. Duterte’s government blew both chances for very flimsy reasons,” Ridon said.
“A new government with a fresh mandate should not allow this to happen again,” he added.