CAVITE’S Sangley Airport expansion project is targeted to break ground in the middle of next month after the completion of a technical assessment, the provincial governor said.
In a phone message on Sunday, Cavite Governor Juanito Victor C. Remulla said the local government was looking at Feb. 15 to start the project and that it was scheduled to make an announcement.
He said the bid of MacroAsia Corp. and China Communications Construction Corp. (CCCC) to upgrade and expand the Sangley Airport was still undergoing a technical evaluation. The Cavite government will then make an announcement on the results of the assessment on Wednesday, he added.
Mr. Remulla was reported as saying in December last year that the provincial government targets to award the project contract by Jan. 15.
Before it was repurposed for general aviation, Sangley was formally known as Danilo Atienza Air Base. Its location on Sangley Point, a narrow peninsula which served as a naval facility during the Spanish occupation, is surrounded by navigable waters that require extensive reclamation.
Cavite’s government and its joint venture partner plan to build a $10-billion airport out of the existing small airport.
The proposed airport will have four runways — or double the two runways of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport — and a terminal that can handle 100 million passengers annually.
The project has been structured to isolate the costly reclamation portion from the airport-building component, and to ease compliance with procurement rules.
Mr. Remulla had said that the airport would be operational by 2023, and the fourth runway to be opened after six years.
In December last year, the Cavite government announced that MacroAsia-CCCC was the sole bidder for the project.
A month earlier, Mr. Remulla said that apart from MacroAsia and CCCC, the other buyers of bid documents were Metro Pacific Investments Corp.; Prime Asset Ventures, Inc.; Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions, Inc.; Langham Properties, Inc.; and Mosveldtt Law Offices. — Arjay L. Balinbin
