The holding firm of controversial businessman, Reghis Romero II, has submitted an unsolicited proposal to design, build, finance and operate the proposed second terminal at the international airport in central Luzon, the Clark-based airport agency said Thursday.

Romero-led R-II Holdings Inc. is vying for the P4 billion Terminal 2 project at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), which is touted as the country's alternative gateway to Manila.

Romero is popularly known as R-II, after the huge construction and engineering firm, R-II Builders, that had made him a multi-millionaire.

R-II Builders is largely known for transforming a portion of the 22-hectare Smokey Mountain garbage dump into a habitable community.

Romero once mulled running for a local position in his hometown Angeles in Pampanga province, the location of the airport.

Terminal 2

The winning bidder of the DMIA's Terminal 2 project will build, design, finance, equip and operate the DMIA Terminal 2.

The target completion date of the project is March 31, 2010.

Terminal 2 will be built on an 11.9-hectare land inside the Clark Civil Aviation Complex's vast 2,500-hectare space.

The minimum investment for Terminal 2 is P4 billion and requires a minimum capacity of 3 million passengers per year.

An earlier failed bidding required a capacity for 7 million annual passengers and a P6.5 billion investment.

Option

CIAC president and chief executive officer, Victor Jose I. Luciano earlier said that if the current bidding will fail again, CIAC could undertake the project on its own.

He said CIAC can tap overseas development assistance from Korean agencies.

"A viable option is through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the Korea Eximbank for an ODA (Overseas Development
Assistance) to develop Terminal 2," Luciano said.

The prospective loan has an interest of only 0.1 percent with a grace period of 10 years and payable up to 40 years.

"Competitive challenge"

Reghis Romero II's unsolicited proposal will be subjected to a "competitive challenge," according to Romeo N. Dyoco Jr., the chairman of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC)'s joint venture selection committee for the DMIA's Terminal 2 project,

In a statement, CIAC said that other groups--Pacific-Avia Group, SNC Lavalin International and Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers of Korea--have
sent letters of intent but are still to submit their proposals.

The Pacific-Avia Group Inc. is a consortium of the A.M. Oreta Construction Company, DHL Philippines, DRI Holdings, EGIS AVIA S.A., Pentagon
Development Corporation, the Bank of Commerce, and the law firm Castillo Laman Tan Pantaleon & San Jose.

SNC Lavalin International, on the other hand, has over 90 years of engineering-construction project experience, executing thousands of projects worldwide.

The company is among the world's Top 10 Global Design firms according to the Engineering News Record, an industry publication.

Meanwhile, Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers is composed of Philco Aero, the Posco Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd, the Korea Development Bank, the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, and the Global Standard Developing Co., Ltd.

The group claims vast experience in finance and advice for investment infrastructure such as for feasibility studies and project arrangements for investments as well as sourcing funds for projects.