An insider revealed the Gotianun family’s Filinvest Group had signaled plans to submit an offer to modernize and operate the Davao International Airport, the country’s fourth-largest gateway.
Filinvest Group, the largest investor in Clark International Airport, believes the timing is ideal due to the growing success of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), led by Secretary Jaime Bautista, in airport public-private partnership deals.
This comes after San Miguel Corp. and South Korea’s Incheon Airports secured the Ninoy Aquino International Airport project—once deemed impossible to privatize.
There were previous attempts to hand over the operations of Davao Airport to a private partner, but these fell through. The most recent was the attempt by tycoon Dennis A. Uy’s Udenna Group, but this was eventually rejected.
“We already rejected the proposal of Udenna for being unresponsive,” a government insider said.
Meanwhile, the government is actively preparing the deal terms for the Davao Airport since its preference is for a solicited rather than unsolicited process. We suspect it could be persuaded to consider the latter approach if a highly compelling proposal emerges that definitively benefits the public.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
