MANILA, Philippines - Contrary to claims made by the chairman of the state gaming monopoly, the SM group has yet to commit any funding for the planned road linking the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and Pagcor's Entertainment City.
"The project you mentioned is not definite yet. We are equally surprised to hear that the project and the people involved are already committing. I think it is still a work in progress," Harley T. Sy, SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) president, said.
"I'm surprised and as far it is still a work in progress. We encourage it, but the numbers are still moving," he said.
Armin Raquel-Santos, Belle Corp. executive vice president for premium leisure and amusement, said the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. met the four Entertainment City licensees "to see the viability of the expressway."
Other Entertainment City locators are Enrique Razon Jr.'s Bloomberry Investments Holdings Inc., the consortium of Malaysia's Genting Group and Andrew Tan's Alliance Global Group Inc., and Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp.
"There is no commitment yet because the funding right now is at the design stage," Raquel-Santos said.
On Wednesday, Henry Sy Jr. said the SM group was not directly participating in public-private partnership (PPP) projects since "these projects are much sought after, competition is very intense [and] profit margins might suffer."
His younger brother, Harley, said the SM group' involvement in the PPP projects of the Aquino administration is through banking arm Banco de Oro Unibank, which may provide project financing.
"We have not really looked into the numbers and it is more of we will do what we believe we can do best. We cannot do too many things. We might lose our focus," he said.
Last month, Cristino Naguiat, Pagcor chairman, told members of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines that the four licensees of the Entertainment City had committed to finance half of the P12-billion road project.
He had said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) approached him, seeking the private firms' commitment to co-finance the project.
"I talked to all the proponents and I told them to invest at least more than a billion pesos each. They would fund the project. They requested that their investment would be part of their investment commitment [in Pagcor City]," Naguiat told reporters during a seminar in Clark.
Because of this commitment from the locators, DPWH is taking out the government subsidy, with the contractor providing half of the funding.
The original plan was revised to accommodate the request for the highway to end up at Entertainment City instead of Roxas Boulevard. By diverting the road, travel time from the airport to the gaming and casino complex would be cut down to 16 minutes.
InterAksyon.com is still awaiting response from Pagcor and the other locators as of this posting.
source: interaksyon.com
