Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla on Tuesday said they will conduct bidding for expansion and construction of the Sangley Airport.

In an interview with reporters, Remulla said government procedures such as bidding are “very difficult” and can cause speculations of corruption.

“Even though we said we will construct, just to go to the bidding process is very tedious. So we prefer...private corporation and I don’t want to be part of the procurement process. I don’t want anyone to come at me to ask for anything. I want to be beyond it (because) speculation of corruption is going to be wide,” he said.

The provincial government of Cavite should be the one to handle the construction but because of its procedures, Remulla said they will just handle reclamation of land for the winning bidder.

Remulla said so far they received six participants for the project, five major local companies and one Chinese firm, China Construction Co.

“MPIC (Metro Pacific Investments Corp.) is one. DM Consunji is one. Ayala has signified their intention, and SM has signified their intention also,” he said.

The entire project is estimated at $10 billion.

“All in all, the reclamation component would cost maybe $3 billion and the airport itself including the runway, including the avionics, including the terminal may cost $7 billion,” said Remulla.

The 1,500-meter international airport hub project will have four runways that can cater around 100 million passengers.

Remulla said deadline for purchasing bid documents will be on November 11 after that they will submit their offer by November 25. The winning bidder will announced by the end of the said month.

“It will break ground on January 15. The first runway will be completed in three years and then the four runways, we plan, in six years,” he said.

For the operation and management of the airport, Remulla said the winner can have their own bidding.

“He will build it. He will lease it and build the terminal and he will choose a partner for the O&M,” he said.

“After we bid out the airport contract, we don’t want to be part of it,” he said.

In terms of assets, Remulla said it will go to the winning bidder but the land is still owned by the province of Cavite.

Remulla said the Cavite government will reimburse DOTr’s expenses once the Sangley Airport expansion is ready to be implemented.

He said this can help decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) which caters around 42 million passengers.

He added Sangley and the New Manila International Airport to be built in Bulacan will be a great help in the economic development of the country.

“I think Bulacan and us can co-exist for the development of the country because all the majors cities in the world has two airports functioning side by side, I think we should have the same,” said Remulla.

Once the Sangley Airport opens by November, it will be operational for turboprop cargo and general aviation. Ella Dionisio/DMS