Cebu tourism, business groups denounce case vs Megawide

CLARK FREEPORT -- Organizations across Cebu are manifesting their support for the partnership of Megawide and GMR Infrastructure's P109-billion proposal to rehabilitate and transform the decades-old Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

In separate letters addressed to President Rodrigo Duterte, different stakeholders from Cebu's tourism and health sectors expressed that with Megawide's NAIA rehabilitation plans, Filipinos shall ultimately experience immense improvement in comfort, efficiency, and airport security.

This came after Cebu Business Groups -- the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. -- wrote separately to Department of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and House Transportation Committee Chairman Edgar Mary Sarmiento and reminded them that NAIA rehabilitation is part of the President's Build-Build-Build legacy.

Cebu is one of Duterte's bailiwicks and has continuously shown strong regional support for his administration.

Cebu Association of Tour Guides President Mary Grace Melendres said their group strongly denounces and decries the "harassment" against world-class Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) operators Megawide and GMR, as they face an anti-dummy case before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Completely opposite from what the case makes of the Megawide-GMR partnership, Melendres said the partnership has only been an asset to Cebu tourism.

"We believe the sole purpose of this issue is to tarnish their reputation given the NAIA project and has nothing to do with the airport's management," Melendres said in a letter addressed to Duterte last December 28, 2020.

Melendres emphasized that the modernization of the MCIA proved pivotal in advancing Cebu's tourism image as tourist arrivals greatly increased.

According to Melendres, from only 6.5 million passengers per annum (mppa) six years ago, the number of passengers doubled at almost 13 mppa in 2019 when Megawide-GMR took over MCIA management.

"The solid partnership of Megawide and GMR has been an asset to Cebu boosting local tourism and the regional economy. MCIA excellent operations has provided jobs and livelihood to Cebuanos and business growth opportunities for local entrepreneurs that include us," Melendres said.

In a separate letter to the President on December 21, local supplier Vertical Difficult Access Solutions Inc. president Eduardo Solana Jr. said third-party partners of Megawide and GMR are very much satisfied with how the MCIA is operated and managed.

As a part of third-party airport suppliers, vendors, and concessionaires, Solana believes that "the case is nothing more than a nuisance issue meant to tarnish the company's reputation," in connection to the private contractor's NAIA rehab bid.

Solana said Megawide and GMR's solid track record of designing, constructing and delivering topnotch airports will definitely deliver a world-class NAIA and will put the country back in the map of international tourists.

NAIA modernization for safety, security

Meanwhile, in the eyes of a healthcare expert like Dr. James Peter Aznar, Prime Care Alpha Covid-19 Testing Laboratory head, NAIA's modernization is necessary not only to jumpstart the country's tourism and economy, but to also ensure the country's safety amid global health threats like the Covid-19 pandemic.

Aznar believes that airports inadvertently have become the gateway of the Covid-19 pandemic and will remain not only as the primary gateway, but also as the first line of defense of each country on such global occurrences.

"We strongly believe that Megawide and GMR are also the nation's best bet to revive the glory of the country's airports most especially the country's primary gateway, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport," Aznar said in his letter to Duterte on December 21.

"NAIA has definitely seen better days. It even sunk so low as being the worst airport in the world from 2011 to 2013. Yet for one reason or

another, it never got the care it so richly deserved as the initial touchpoint to most visitors of our beautiful country," he added.

As a Cebuano himself, Aznar said having a world-class airport like the MCIA is not far from reality. For him, seeing to it that NAIA rehab comes to fruition may be the President's "most beautiful legacy."

"We continue to believe in the administration's promise to get the NAIA rehabilitation on its way while protecting the achievements of other Philippine airports," Solana said.

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