Bulacan airport groundbreaking by end-2019 —San Miguel

Original proponent San Miguel Corp. (SMC) is optimistic it can start constructing its proposed P735-billion Bulacan International Airport by the end of 2019, SMC president and COO Ramon Ang said Tuesday.

“The Swiss challenge timeline is up to end of July so … by then we will have to sit down to finalize the concession agreement with sponsor agency like DOTr (Department of Transportation),” Ang noted during the conglomerate’s annual stockholders’ meeting in Mandaluyong City.

“Siguro by the end of this year we can do the groundbreaking,” he said.

In April, the DOTr began the Swiss challenge or the process in which the original proponent will have to match or best the challengers to its airport proposal.

The Bulacan airport, an unsolicited proposal from SMC’s infrastructure unit, was approved by NEDA Board—chaired by President Rodrigo Duterte—on April 26 subject to resolution of pending issues, including the joint and several liability agreements by San Miguel Holdings and its parent company San Miguel Corp.

The project involves the construction, operation, and maintenance of a 2,500-hectare airport in Bulakan, Bulacan. The development includes a passenger terminal building with airside and landside facilities, and an airport toll road, and four runways. —VDS, GMA News