MANILA, Philippines – Negotiations to lease out the Navy’s major facilities on Roxas Boulevard and in Taguig City for private commercial development in order to raise funds for fleet modernization are in advanced stages, President Aquino told The STAR yesterday when he attended the 24th anniversary celebration at the paper’s offices in Port Area.
He also said the private developer, who he declined to name until the deal is finalized, is willing to give an initial $100 million as goodwill money, enough for the Philippine Navy to purchase four new ships to patrol the country’s 36,000 nautical miles of coastline. He noted that the Navy currently has 32 ships in its fleet, and most of these vessels are “mas matanda pa as akin (older than I am).” Mr. Aquino is 50 years old.
President Aquino, in his first State of the Nation Address last Monday, disclosed the military’s plan to have the Navy headquarters on Roxas Boulevard in Manila as well the Naval Station at Fort Bonifacio leased to and developed by private groups.
“They will take care of the funding necessary to transfer the Navy headquarters to Camp Aguinaldo. Immediately, we will be given $100 million. Furthermore, they will give us a portion of their profits from their businesses that would occupy the land they will rent,” he said.
“In short, we will meet our needs without spending, and we will also earn. There have already been many proposals from local and foreign investors to provide for our various needs,” he said.
“We will be able to construct the needed infrastructure in order to help tourism grow,” he said.
“The Philippine Navy welcomes this development,” Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo, spokesman of the Philippine Navy, said in reaction to Mr. Aquino’s announcement.
“We need to modernize but we have no money. So we have to come up with alternative sources of funding,” Arevalo said.
The Fort Bonifacio Naval station, which covers a golf course, housing units for officers and enlisted personnel, a hospital, and the headquarters of the Philippine Marines, covers an area of approximately 22 hectares.
The Army, meanwhile, has some 100 hectares of land at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City while the Air Force has 30 hectares at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.
“They will develop at no cost to us and then we will be sharing profits. The properties remain ours. This is what we call public-private partnership,” Arevalo said.
“The Army and Air Force should come up with similar recommendations which is the leasing of valuable lands without really losing ownership,” AFP spokesman, Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta said.
Camp Aguinaldo would eventually be the headquarters of all three major services as well as the Department of National Defense, just like the Pentagon in Virginia in the United States.
Mabanta said the Armed Forces has a sizable share in the proceeds from the sale of military real estate assets by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
“It (proposed public-private partnership) will be one of the possible sources of funds. At this point, the major fund is the proceeds from the BCDA. We are getting a lion’s share of it as well as from government appropriations,” Mabanta said. – With Delon Porcalla - By Edith Regalado and Jaime Laude
