MikeLigalig.com

By the Bohol Standard

“This could be another ZTE-NBN deal.”

Such impression, as coined by a new group of oppositors to the Panglao Bohol International Airport Project, reached feverish pitch this week as reports floated that the P4.17-Billion Bohol airport project has been awarded to a winning bidder: Hanjin Heavy Industries Corporation.

Hanjin, a large South Korean firm, had been a permanent fixture here since 1995 when it worked on the Malinao Dam Project (as Hanil), working on allother Bohol’s mega projects like the Capayas, Ubay Dam (P1B), succeeding Bohol Irrigation Project 2, Bayongan Dam (BHIP2 P3.7B), and the Bohol Circumferential Road Improvement Project (BCRIP 1-2, P4.6B).

Hanjin has earned the cold stares of local contractors who complained they are being “sidelined” for obvious lack of financial resources to compete in large-scale government projects.

No particular person, organization, however, has been pointed as the source of the radio reports.

The same unverified report triggered more speculations that the project was indeed railroaded and did not go through the standard government open competitive public bidding process, pushing Bohol concerned sectors on guard against corruption.

Some concerned Boholanos have openly aired desire for a Congressional inquiry to shed light on the issue.

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This does not surprise me. If not Hanjin, what can save the face of Arroyo and Aumentado has to be some foreign contractor that has the financial wherewithal or strings to the aid or soft-loan sources of their home governments.

How can Panglao International Airport be built if we expect 70 percent of its funding from Lucio Tan's long-standing arrears in rent to Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA)?

Given the slowdown in passenger traffic and PAL's accumulated financial woes, it is simply impossible for Lucio Tan to roll the project in hard cash or muscle his banks, PNB and Allied Bank--now on the verge of a merger--to bankroll this gargantuan project.

Therefore, the contractor has to have other strong sources of fund to keep the construction onstream at every stage until completion in 2010. Small, local contractors simply do not have the financial capacity or network to even start this project, unless they are paid in cash.





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