Tuesday, October 13, 2020
San Miguel completes Skyway Stage 3 project
Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) on Tuesday announced that the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 has been completed.
In a statement, SMC president and COO Ramon Ang said the entire 17.93-kilometer stretch of the project, linking Southern and Northern Luzon, has been finished over the weekend.
The completion was done ahead of the original October 31 schedule the company earlier announced, following delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m happy to announce that the whole structure of Skyway 3 is now complete. With this, Skyway 2 in Buendia is now officially extended all the way to the North Luzon Expressway,” Ang said.
“After many challenges this project faced in previous years, the dream of connecting north and south and providing an alternative to EDSA is now a reality,” he said.
With Skyway Stage 3, travel from SLEx to NLEx will now only take 20 minutes, from around three hours previously.
Magallanes to Balintawak will only take about 15 minutes, Balintawak to Ninoy Aquino International Airport will be only 15 minutes, and Valenzuela to Makati in just 10 minutes.
Ang, however, said that the expressway cannot be opened to the public just yet, as finishing works, such as the proper curing of asphalt, have been delayed by continuous and heavy rains.
“We’re very excited to open Skyway 3 to the public. We just have to wait for the weather to improve so we can make sure that the asphalt will cure properly. That and a few more finishing touches are all that’s needed, and then we can open, soon,” he said.
Since COVID-19 restrictions were eased starting mid-May to June earlier this year, Ang said the company had been doubling its efforts to deliver its major infrastructure projects with the least delays possible.
In mid-July, SMC delivered the last section of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) to Rosario, La Union, officially opening the entire stretch of the TPLEX to motorists.
Apart from the Skyway Stage 3, the company is also looking to deliver the northbound section of the Skyway Extension, which provides additional lanes and connects the SLEx to Skyway near Susanna Heights and the Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway—by December this year.
Ang has vowed to push through with all its major infrastructure projects despite the economic slowdown due to the pandemic, in order to generate jobs and help the economy recover.
Its P740-billion Manila International Airport project in Bulacan, said to be the largest single-item investment in Philippine history, is also set to break ground by the end of the year.
Seen as a game-changer for the Philippine economy, it will generate over a million direct and indirect jobs and, once complete, create up to as much as 30 million tourism jobs nationwide, according to SMC.—AOL, GMA News
POE: BULACAN AIRPORT PROJECT TO SPUR THOUSANDS OF JOBS, OPPORTUNITIES
Government will not be giving San Miguel's airport project guarantees on profits nor will it subsidize its operations.
Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, said San Miguel will be pouring in as much as P1.5 trillion into the Bulacan airport project, P734 billion of which will go into the airport alone.
"There are no government guarantees here. What they are promising is, any amount in excess of the 12-percent rate of return will go to the government. If they do not make the 12 percent, they will still be responsible for the airport even if they have to operate at a loss," Poe said.
If San Miguel loses money from the Bulacan airport project, government is not obliged to give it funding.
"There is no provision here whatsoever that says the government will step in to bail them out," Poe said.
The Senate has unanimously approved on third and final reading the franchise for San Miguel Aerocity Inc. for a 50-year period, including a 10-year period for its design, planning and construction.
"The project will provide 450,000 jobs during the construction phase alone. And then after that, upwards of a million people will be able to benefit from the undertaking; not to mention the hundreds of thousands of passengers who will fly in and out of the country everyday," Poe said.
The senator cited that San Miguel has spent P98 million to 364 residents that includes P100,000 each for them to build concrete houses and P250,000 in cash plus additional aid of P3,000 to P20,000.
The proposed franchise grants San Miguel Aerocity exemption from all direct and indirect taxes and fees for the 10 years that it is under construction, including exemption from permit fees collected by local and national government entities but it is required to submit its annual report to Congress which will be a prerequisite for any of its applications for permits and certificates from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. Failure to submit the annual report on or before April 30 will be penalized with a fine of P1 million for every working day that it is not submitted.
Under the franchise proposal, the tax exemptions for the Bulacan airport will be in effect until such time that the Bureau of Internal Revenue determines that San Miguel has recovered its investment in the project.
Once the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) determines that San Miguel has recovered its investment on the airport and on the airport city, San Miguel Aerocity will then be subjected to all taxes under the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 and the amended Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
And once the BIR determines that the investments have been recovered, San Miguel will be allowed to earn an internal rate of return of 12 percent per annum, with anything in excess to be remitted to the national government. The internal rate of return shall be computed within three months after the BIR's determination that the investments have been recouped.
San Miguel will also be required to sell at least 20 percent of San Miguel Aerocity in the stock market within five years after the BIR's determination.