Uncertain

Whoever might think of investing in rehabilitating the Manila International Airport so that it meets global standards must be watching events at the Subic Port very closely – and very nervously. What is happening there provides no assurance that long-term contracts with government will be honored in the long term.

Businesses at the vital Subic Port are in a state of great anxiety. Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) seem to have pulled a disappearing act rather than help relieve the confusion. Perhaps President Marcos no less should step in and set policy.

The Supreme Court Third Division, after a decade of judicial deliberation and by a thin margin, ordered the SBMA to transfer control of the free port to Harbour Center Port Terminal, Inc. This enforces a joint venture agreement forged with the SBMA just two months before elections. The agreement, in turn, results from an unsolicited proposal submitted by Harbour Center.

Many issues have been raised about the circumstances leading to this controversial agreement. The Supreme Court Third Division glossed over most of these issues.

The agreement that grants Harbour Center monopoly over port operations at Subic Bay was stiffly opposed from the onset by the NEDA and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel. The NEDA, in fact, invalidated the agreement in 2011.

Several reasons were put forward to justify the invalidation.

NEDA believes that the agreement ran counter to the principles of transparent governance applied to government contracts. The deal was approved just three months after an unsolicited bid was submitted by the private company to run the entire port. There ought to have been a competitive challenge to this proposal. None was