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MacroAsia may bring PAL, other Lucio Tan firms into Sangley airport project


Lucio Tan's MacroAsia Corporation may bring on board some of the tycoon's other companies, including flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), into the consortium that will construct the Sangley Point International Airport for additional financial backing.

"MacroAsia is part of a larger group. So if our partner agrees, we may bring in [those that are] part of the [Lucio Tan] group. PAL is definitely going to be of use," MacroAsia president and  Joseph Chua said Tuesday.

This was confirmed by MacroAsia in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

"We confirm that MacroAsia Corporation , with the agreement of its partners (Provincial Government of Cavite and CCCC), may bring in other firms related to Dr. Lucio C. Tan to help fund the Sangley Point International Airport Project," it said.

The Cavite provincial government earlier this month awarded the contract for the phase 1 of the Sangley Point International Airport Project to the consortium of MacroAsia and state-run China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. 

The project’s first phase involves the construction of a runway, connector road and bridge to the Kawit segment of CAVITEx.

Cavite targets Sangley International Airport to be partially operational by 2022 and fully operational by 2023.

PAL's parent firm PAL Holdings, meanwhile, said that the Sangley airport project has not been presented or proposed to its management and board.

"We believe it will be premature at this point to comment on the same," PAL Holdings said in a disclosure.

Likewise, LT Group said the project has not been brought up to its management and board.

"In the event that the Project is presented to the LTG's Management and Board, it will be subjected to the same vigorous review and assessment applied to all similar proposals," LT Group said in a separate disclosure.

Cavite Governor Juanito Victor Remulla earlier said that the provincial government and its joint venture partner hope to break ground on the first phase of the project in the second quarter of 2020. 

Remulla also said that the MacroAsia-CCCC consortium will work on two other phases of the airport project. However, he noted that renegotiations of contract will be done as the project progresses.

The Phase 2 has an estimated cost of $6 billion. It involves the construction of another two runways, a design capacity for 75 million passengers annually.

The third phase is to add a fourth runway for a total annual capacity of 130 million passengers.

The Sangley International Airport project is a joint venture between the private sector and the local government unit of Cavite. In such a set-up, the project does not need to secure the approval of other government agencies such as the National Economic and Development Authority. — BM, GMA News

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