This was the question posed by the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) after Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) started lapping up premium properties here practically uncontested.
Filinvest acquired the sprawling 201.64-hectare Mimosa Leisure Estate (MLE) in January last year as the lone bidder just days after its subsidiary, Filinvest Land, Inc., signed a joint venture agreement with the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) to develop some 288-hecatre property in the Clark Green City project.
Last Monday (March 20), news reports said Filinvest, through a consortium it formed with JG Summits Holdings, Inc., is also eyeing to develop the Clark International Airport (CIA) through an unsolicited proposal via the public- private partnership (PPP) program.
“With early completion in mind, our unsolicited proposal is based on the Aeroport de Paris Masterplan prepared for the Clark International Airport last 2015 in order to fast track its development. The new CIA will serve the residents of central and northern Luzon and at the same time help ease congestion at NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport),” the consortium said in a statement.
However, this prompted a response from the GMR-Megawide consortium which expressed alarm over the development.
In a statement, Megawide Consortium Corp. and its Bangalore- based partner, airport operator GMR Infrastructure Ltd., said it submitted a similar proposal in July 2016 but it seemed that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) allegedly failed to put it up for review.
GMR Megawide, which reportedly bagged the Philippines first airport PPP project with the Cebu-Mactan International Airport, said it wants “transparency and fair play for all unsolicited proposals.”
Now, the PGKM is worried and wondering why Filinvest seemed to be getting all the juicy projects here.
“Is Filinvest the ‘bata’ (favorite) of (President) Duterte or (Transportation Secretary) Tugade?” PGKM chair Ruperto Cruz asked. “Why is it getting apparently everything it wants with Clark?”
“The PGKM is opposed to develop the Clark airport via the PPP program,” said Cruz.
“We don’t want PPP in Clark. We don’t want to be dictated by the Chinese groups and other groups with vested interests,” Cruz said.
“This will result in another monopoly and only the oligarchs will prosper from this and to think that they are not even from here,” he said.
“There is no certainty in the PPP. We have the funds to begin the terminal that will eventually amount to P15 billion. Why not set aside more funds for the Clark airport,” he said.
“Show us the color of your money,” he added referring to the unsolicited proposals from the giant corporations.
