BIZ BUZZ: Iloilo airport PPP project hits snag

Plans of Prime Asset Ventures, Inc. (PAVI) to expand, operate and maintain Iloilo International Airport have hit a snag after the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and attached agency, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, recently rejected their unsolicited proposal.

This, after a technical review of PAVI’s unsolicited proposal, concluded that there had been “substantial changes” in line items of its proposal, including the total project cost, revenue projections and capital expenditure items that “significantly affected and changed the financial and economic viability of the project.”

Because of these “significant changes and revisions”, the DOTr led by acting Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez told the Villar-led company last March that the proposal was “no longer economically feasible and viable,” thus it had no choice but to “consider the proposal rejected.”

This then paves the way for other private companies to submit their own proposal to expand the Iloilo airport that has become more busy in recent years because of robust economic activity in the city and the province.

Biz Buzz sources said that PAVI could still submit a revised proposal to bag the project under a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement. But for now, it’s back to the drawing board for PAVI and for DOTr, too.