Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – The tandem of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Land Inc. has asked Malacanang to dismiss the appeal filed by San Miguel Corp. (SMC) regarding its disqualification in the bidding for the P35.4 billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX) project held last month. Team Orion, a 50-50 joint venture between Ayala’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. and Aboitiz Land, submitted to the Office of the President a comment on the Memorandum of Appeal filed by SMC last June 27 appealing the disqualification of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. Team Orion spokesperson Roman Azanza III said the group earlier filed a Motion to Intervene with Malacanang to inform the public about the ongoing dispute in the award of the infrastructure project. “We believe that nobody or no entity should ever be allowed to undermine the bidding process. There are rules and procedures that must be followed in a public bidding. If we do not follow it, and if we let errant participants act outside of the rules of a public bidding process, then the whole process will lose credibility,” Azanza said. He warned that the controversy puts in peril close to P900 billion worth of major infrastructure projects  under the Aquino administration’s PPP scheme. “We stand more to lose as a nation if we do not respect our own bidding rules and procedures. We need to keep the hard-earned confidence of investors in the stability and integrity of our public bidding process,” he said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Losing Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) is set to present to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) the master plan for the aerotropolis and the feasibility study for the proposed P7.2-billion low cost carrier (LCC) terminal in Pampanga. Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the master plan and feasibility study prepared by Aeroports de Paris (ADP) of France would be presented to the NEDA-Investment Coordination Committee next month. “ADP presented its concept design for a new LCC terminal to DOTC and CIAC officials last month, and CIAC is now scheduled to present this proposal to the NEDA-ICC in August,” Abaya said. According to Abaya, the P417-million improvement project of the existing passenger terminal building at the Clark International Airport was completed last May raising the annual passenger capacity from 2.5 million to four million. The project increased the size of the building to 19,799 square meters from 11,439 square meters. Likewise, the number of check-in counters was also increased to 34 from 13 with the addition of 12 departure counters and five arrival counters to accommodate more passengers and ease queuing. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The modernized portion of the terminal itself has eight entry points and three customs stations allowing the international airport to accommodate more international flights from Qatar Airways and Emirates. On the other hand, Abaya said the proposed new budget terminal would further boost the capacity of the international airport to between eight and 16 million passengers Read More …

THE COUNTRY’S external payments position is expected to improve in the coming months even as another deficit was recorded in June — widening the year-to-date gap — on the back of more capital inflows, robust remittances and strong exports, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

DAVAO CITY — The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) wants municipal governments on the island to firm up their respective investment codes to serve as basis for identifying priority ventures that the agency can match with prospective private investors, a spokesman of the agency said in a recent statement.

THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) yesterday sued the country’s exclusive distributor of Kopiko products, and several other businesses, for allegedly evading billions of pesos worth of taxes.