DOTr, Megawide differ on whether deadlines were set as firm loses OPS on NAIA bid

The government on Thursday said the revocation of Megawide Construction Corporation group's original proponent status (OPS) for the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) was due to a failure to meet deadlines, but the group said there were no deadlines set for the requirements.

In a Senate hearing, Transportation Undersecretary for Planning Ruben Reinoso Jr. said the private proponent—Megawide Construction Corporation and its partner, Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure Ltd.—was asked in August to submit equity document requirements, but failed to do so by October.

Reinoso said that the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) met on August 19 to discuss the group's proposal, but found that the documents on the equity of the project did not meet the government's requirements. He said the group was given until October to meet this.

"Binigyan po sila ng pagkakataon ng MIAA [Manila International Airport Authority]. As a matter of fact, binigyan po sila ng deadline ng MIAA. 'Yung deadline po na binigay ng MIAA, hindi nila nai-submit 'yung compliance kaya nag-convene 'yung board ng MIAA at dinesisyunan ng MIAA 'yung kanila proposal," he said.

The MIAA Board, in a meeting on December 4, 2020 and a subsequent meeting on December 15, decided to revoke the OPS of the Megawide-GMR group.

Among the documents that were needed from the group for the project to push through was the equity structure given the project equity, which needs to comply with the build-operate-transfer law where the proponent should prove that it can finance the undertaking through at least 30% equity, and 70% debt.

For his part, Megawide chief business development officer Jaime Feliciano said that in earlier communications with the government, there were differences in the interpretation of the requirements which needed to be sorted out. But when the NEDA-ICC on November 19 asked for documents to be submitted, the company did so and complied on November 20.

"Lahat po, from our perspective, lahat ng requirements na sinet ng NEDA-ICC sinubmit na po namin, so that's why I suppose medyo nagulat kami nung na-receive namin 'yung news na na-revoke yung OPS," he said. "May communication naman po na nanggagaling kay MIAA na pinapa-comply kami, to be fair to the government, meron naman pong mag sine-send na request to submit all the necessary documents."

"'Yung sinasabi po na November 19 letter coming from DOF and NEDA although wala naman kaming official copy nun, nakita lang po namin na lumabas sa media, parang wala naman pong deadline," he added.

Shares in Megawide closed Thursday at P8.45 apiece, down by 25 centavos or 2.87% from Wednesday's finish of P8.70 apiece. — BM, GMA News