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The Philippine Department of Transportation (DOTr) has launched a tender process to seek bidders for the Development, Operations and Maintenance of the five unbundled airport projects namely Bacolod-Silay, Davao, Iloilo, Laguindingan, and New Bohol (Panglao) under public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

Through an invitation to pre-qualify and bid (ITPQB) published on January 24, the DOTr is bidding out the five regional airports after the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board approved last November the unbundling of these airport PPP deals.

The bidding of the five airports will be conducted through the two-stage/two-envelope system under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) law. In this process, the bidders are first pre-qualified based on their legal, technical, and financial requirements set by the DOTr and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). Only bidders that are pre-qualified can proceed to the next stage of the bidding process where they will submit their technical and financial proposals which will be evaluated by the Pre-qualification, Bids and Awards Committee. 

According to the transportation department, aside from the previous pre-qualified bidders, the project is now also open to new bidders. Previously pre-qualified bidders include:

• Filinvest-Jatco-Sojitz Consortium, composed of Filinvest Development Corporation; Japan Airport Terminal Co., Ltd; Sojitz Corporation;,
• GMR Infrastructure and Megawide Consortium, composed of Megawide Construction Corporation; GMR Infrastructure (Singapore) Pte. Limited (GISPL),
• Maya Consortium, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc; VINCI Airports SAS;
• Philippine Airports Consortium, composed of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation; Philippines Airport Management Compan; 
• and SMHC-IIAC Airport Consortium, composed of San Miguel Holdings Corporation; Incheon International Airport Corporation.

The DOTr clarified that previously pre-qualified bidders in the bundled projects are also considered pre-qualified in the unbundled projects, provided that there are no changes in their legal, technical, and/or financial capacity.

These PPP projects aim to improve the services of the regional airports by allowing its private sector partner to handle its operation and maintenance including the enhancement of its airside and landside facilities. This is in line with the government’s plan to develop international gateways in the countryside.