Duterte inaugurates Sangley airport project

MANILA — As part of his effort to address air traffic congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City, President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday inaugurated the Sangley Airport Development Project (SADP) in Cavite City.

Duterte also led the presentation of the Sangley Point International Airport (SPIA) Project at the airport’s New Passenger Terminal Building.

The proposed SPIA Project, a 1,500-hectare master-planned international airport hub, will serve as a global aviation hub to decongest NAIA which is operating above its current capacity.

The Sangley airport will feature four runways and a terminal that can handle 100 million passengers annually.

Duterte also led the unveiling of the Sangley airport’s marker.

He was joined by Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines director-general Jim Sydiongco, Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla, and Senator Christopher Lawrence Go.

Sangley airport is one of the key projects of the Duterte government under the ambitious “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program.

The airport, previously known as the Danilo Atienza Air Base, was used by the Philippine Air Force.

The airport project is being undertaken by the Cavite government under the Public-Private Partnership Code.

The Cavite government has formally awarded the initial phase of SPIA project to Filipino-Chinese consortium of MacroAsia Corp. and China Communications Co. Ltd. (CCCC).

The awarding was expected since the consortium was the sole bidder that submitted its joint venture proposal to the Cavite government in December last year.

Once the joint venture deal is signed, MarcoAsia and CCCC will allot between a year and 18 months to lead the completion of the detailed engineering design and financial closing.

The total cost of the project is approximately PHP308.5 billion.