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Inquirer News Briefs: Palace ‘unaware’ that banned China firm got Sangley airport project

2020-09-15 11:26 / Manila Shimbun

Philippine Daily Inquirer/ September 15, 2020

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea admitted that the Office of the President did not know that a Chinese firm blacklisted by the United States is involved in the Sangley airport project, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Tuesday.

Medialdea made the admission during a hearing on the budget of the Office of the President at the House of Representatives on Monday.

The US blacklisted the state-run China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (CCCC) because of its participation in the reclamation of disputed areas in the South China Sea, a portion of which is within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines, the Inquirer reported.

The CCCC is part of a consortium that was awarded the Sangley Point International Airport project in Cavite. Sangley Point houses a Philippine naval base and used to be a US military facility.

“We are not aware of specific companies as of now. That’s within the purview of the Department of Public Works and Highways,” Medialdea told the House body, according to the Inquirer.

Medialdea also said the Philippines need not ban any company just because the United States did so.

“Let us give them due process. The government has an independent foreign policy,” he replied to Makabayan lawmaker Ferdinand Gaite who made the inquiries on the matter during the hearing.

The Cavite provincial government awarded last February the initial phase of the Sangley Point International Airport (SPIA) project to the consortium of China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (CCCC) and Lucio Tan-owned MacroAsia Corp.

The Inquirer reported that the consortium was the sole bidder for phase one of the project. Phase one will cost P208.5 billion out of the total project value of P550 billion.

Phase 1 involves the construction of the first runway and terminal with a passenger capacity of 25 million passengers per year. It was projected to be completed in 2022.

(DMS/Virgilio DC. Galvez)

The award was expected given that the consortium was the sole bidder that submitted its joint venture proposal to the Cavite government last Dec. 17, 2019.