Despite prospective bidders appealing for an extension, the Department of Transportation or DoTr is firm that the original deadline set to submit bids for the P170.6-billion rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA under a Public-Private Partnership or PPP remains unchanged.

"There are prospective bidders who requested for extension of the Bid Submission Date," the DoTr confirmed on Tuesday.

"However, the Pre-qualifications, Bids, and Award Committee for the Project already issued a Bid Bulletin indicating that the Bid Submission Date remains to be 27 December 2023," it added.

In a position paper, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank or ADB has proposed a one-month extension of the bid submission for the NAIA rehabilitation project.

The ADB, which serves as the Transaction Advisor on the project, suggested that the deadline for submission should be moved to 29 January, instead of the original deadline set on 27 December.

The multilateral lender pointed out the need for a deadline extension to give bidders more time to prepare which stirs more competition.

Additionally, it noted that bidders may experience challenges in securing internal corporate approvals, which will take longer due to the upcoming holidays.

"It would provide concrete evidence of the government's commitment to encourage new players, and foreign investment in Philippine public-private partnerships, without causing undue delay to NAIA's modernization and the PPP program," the ADB paper read.

"We strongly believe that extending the bid submission date would attract more bids, thus resulting in greater competition and a better financial outcome for the government," it added.

Early this month, Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista disclosed that the Limak Group of Turkey also offered a bid for the project.

With the Turkish company in the picture, the DoTr now has eight contenders including GMR Airports International, San Miguel Holdings Corp., Manila International Airport Consortium, Spark 888 Management, Asian Airport Consortium, Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., and Incheon Airport Corp.

However, in its position paper, the ADB only mentioned that "out of the six prospective bidders which have been participating actively in pre-bid activities, four-including large, credible international airport operators with no prior investment in the Philippines have requested an extension."

"If the bid date of 27 December 2023 were to be retained, we expect two prospective bidders with
participation by large local corporations to submit bids," the ADB explained.

"They have both submitted unsolicited proposals for NAIA in the past and are thus significantly more familiar with NAIA than the other four prospective bidders," it added.

Based on the initial Terms of Reference of the project, the winning concessionaire would need to sign a 15-year Rehabilitate-Operate-Expand-Transfer deal with the DOTr and the Manila International Airport Authority.

The winning consortium would also need to provide an upfront payment of P30 billion to the government as a premium and another P2 billion in annuity payments. It is also required to remit a certain percentage of the revenues to the government

The deal mandates the concessionaire to rehabilitate and upgrade the passenger terminals, commercial assets, and surface access facilities, and modernize the communications, navigation, and surveillance systems of the airport.

It is also required to provide a connection at the Naia Terminal 3 to the Metro Manila Subway, deploy buses for boarding transfers, and improve the baggage handling systems.

Once these are realized, the overall passenger experience in the NAIA is expected to improve, while the annual passenger capacity of NAIA is likely to expand by at least 62 million from the current 32 million.