Construction firms interested to participate in the P212.3-million Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 structural retrofit project still have about a week to submit their bids.
The Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) published Monday the invitation to bid.
The MIAA Bids and Awards Committee prospective bidders have up to 12 noon of Aug. 23 to submit their bids, including eligibility requirements.
The planned structural retrofit of the NAIA T3 is an essential part of DoTC’s goal of putting the terminal to operate on full capacity.
The DoTC said the planned retrofit is in line with the government’s commitment to provide convenient, affordable, reliable, efficient and safe air transport because it is meant to improve T3’s building safety and structural integrity.
Separately, however, officials said security should be beefed up in the prime gateways to prevent them from being used for smuggling and transit of illegal products.
Bureau of Customs (BoC) Commissioner Ruffy Biazon believes an international illegal drugs syndicate is considering the country’s prime airports in Pasay City as a good transit point for their dangerous products.
Biazon made the assessment as the BoC, in its relentless effort to curb smuggling, arrested another foreign drug mule who was trying to bring into the country more than two kilos of shabu in NAIA, Pasay City the other day.
It was the third time the BoC intercepted foreigners carrying huge amount of illegal drugs in a short span of time.
According to Biazon, the three aiports — NAIA 1, 2 and 3 — are  good transit point for drugs being distributed by an international drug ring into various parts of the country because of their  strategic location.
“Because of these airports, the international drug ring that we suspect of masterminding the recent smuggling of illegal drugs finds the airports  strategic point  for illegal drugs distribution. From the airports,  which are located at the center of Metro Manila, they can distribute illegal drugs in any part of the country,” Biazon said.
Nevertheless, Biazon assured that the international drug ring would be frustrated with its plans since the BoC is alert 24/7 against smuggling of any merchanize including dangerous drugs.
“They will fail with their plans because my agency is working all night all day seven days a week. We have intensified our campaign against smuggling by cooperating with various law enforcement agencies that’s why this international drug ring will find it difficult to effectively penetrate the country,” Biazon said.
On Tuesday, suspected Vietnamese drug courier Thin Yen Duong was arrested by operatives of the BoC for possessing 2.984 kilos of shabu worth P15 million  while trying to pass through NAIA security.
Earlier,  two other foreign drug mules, a Singaporean and Nepalese, were arrested by BoC operatives in NAIA  for attempting to smuggle illegal drugs worth P15 million in two separate ocassions.
Meanwhile, the structural retrofit of T3 has 11 components: shear wall thickening; slab thickening; application of FRPs to columns, beams and slabs; thickening of flat slab drop; enlarging of column size; enlarging pile cap and footings; steel jacketing; providing shear blocks to pier headstock (elevated access roadway); enlarging of pier footings (elevated access roadway); application of FRP to piers (elevated access roadway); and increasing seismic gap between the elevated access roadway and adjacent structures (sector 1, 2, car park).