Philippine Village Hotel demolition set on April 21 for NAIA Terminal 5 construction

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'Right after Holy Week, ide-demolish na ‘yan. Gagawa tayo ng panibagong terminal, ‘yan ang Terminal 5. So, siguro in two to three years’ time, that will be finished and [you can] expect a lot of improvements na mangyayari pa,' says NNIC general manager Lito Alvarez

MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel-led New NAIA Infra Corporation (NNIC) is pushing through with its plan to demolish the Philippine Village Hotel in Pasay City to construct a new passenger terminal.

In press briefing, NNIC General Manager Angelito Alvarez said the long-abandoned hotel will be knocked down on April 21, Monday.

“Right after Holy Week, ide-demolish na ‘yan. Gagawa tayo ng panibagong terminal, ‘yan ang Terminal 5. So, siguro in two to three years’ time, that will be finished and [you can] expect a lot of improvements na mangyayari pa,” Alvarez said.

(Right after Holy Week, that will be demolished. We are building a new terminal, that will be Terminal 5. So maybe in two to three years’ time, that will be finished and you can expect that a lot of improvements in the pipeline.)

The Philippine Village Hotel is located within government-owned land and is right beside Terminal 2, just by the main ramp of Philippine Airlines, and across the 250th Air Wing of the Presidential Airlift Wing.

It was built to house contestants of the 1974 Miss Universe beauty pageant. In 1975, a company run by Jose Marcel “Jocel” Panlilio called Sulo sa Nayon (later named PVHI) leased 36,289 square meters of the Nayong Pilpino Complex, where the hotel was located.

The Panlilio family was expanding their business empire. However, their business — airline Grand Air and Philippine Village Hotel — later fell through, with PHVI failing to meet monthly payments to Nayong Pilipino.

It had been abandoned for over two decades before it landed back in the hands of government.

Considering its proximity to the presidential air assets and to the area where visiting heads of state arrive and leave, the Manila International Airport Authority had warned that it could become a staging point for terrorists.

The new operator of the country’s main international gateway is now expanding NAIA. Alvarez said they will also be building NAIA Terminal 4 at the old International Cargo Terminal in the next three months.

“Inaasahan namin [na] dun namin mailalagay ang AirAsia domestic flights plus ibang flights ng Cebu Pacific (We are hoping that we can assign there the domestic flights of AirAsia and the other flights of Cebu Pacific),” Alvarez said.

These are just some of the latest developments after the NNIC took over NAIA in September 2024. The San Miguel-led firm has the big task of rehabilitating the country’s aging airport.

Alvarez noted that NAIA has been operating beyond the capacity that it was designed for. It was supposed to only accommodate around 32 million to 34 million passengers yearly.

However, in 2024, this already reached about 51 million travelers.

The NNIC will serve as NAIA’s operator in the next 15 years. A petition was recently filed at the Supreme Court questioning the concession’s legality, although the government, including new Transport Secretary Vince Dizon, stands by the $3-billion deal. – Rappler.com