TRO hearing reset

Judge to hear plea on airport project bidding on Sept. 30
THE REGIONAL Trial Court (RTC) has reset the hearing on the petition to issue a temporary restraining order on the bidding for the P40.57-billion Francisco Bangoy International Airport modernization program.

RTC Branch 10 Presiding Judge Retina Fuentes, in her order dated Aug. 28, has canceled the hearing on the preliminary injunction yesterday and rescheduled it on Sept. 30 at 8:30 a.m.

On Aug. 19, petitioner Andre F. Bucu filed an urgent motion to reset the date since the associate solicitor, who is handling this case, has a previous scheduled hearing.

The writ of preliminary injunction, if granted, would extend, until the case is resolved. Bucu earlier obtained a 5-day temporary restraining order (TRO) from RTC executive judge Emmanuel Carpio after the petition was filed on Aug. 10.

Bucu asked the court to stop the national government from implementing the plan to bid out the improvement of DIA. The project was proposed by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and Department of Transportation and Communication.

“They are projects only in the loosest, most informal sense of the word and subjecting them to public bidding could not possibly serve any public interest or ensure that the government will be able to secure the best offer from the most qualified private entity,” Bucu’s petition read.

Despite the opposition, the national government continued the conduct of bidding process. Last month, six companies have submitted pre-qualification documents to develop the five regional airports, including DIA.

PPP Center said in a statement that “the foreign and local investors that submitted their pre-qualification documents include: Philippine Airports Consortium; Union Equities-ACSA Consortium; San Miguel Holdings Corp.-Incheon International Airport Corp. Airport Consortium; Maya Consortium; Filinvest-Jatco-Sojitz Consortium and GMR Infrastructure and Megawide Consortium.”

Antonio T. Dela Cruz, president of Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., said it is timely that the airport should be improved noting that it is the third busiest airport in the country. As of 2013, the airport handled about 2.795 million passengers with an annual average growth of 10.56%.

The project’s proponent, DOTC along with its attached agency Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, intends to develop the airport so this will be decongested. Its indicative cost is P40.57 billion or almost $1 billion.

The project includes passenger terminal building expansion, cargo terminal building expansion, expansion of other key facilities such as car parking, and administration building, additional area for passenger terminal building from 65,000 to 125,000 square meters and additional for cargo terminal building from 13,000 to 27,000 square meters. With Kristianne Fusilero -From mindanaotimes.net