MANILA, PHILIPPINES - MANILA airport's third passenger terminal which has been sitting dormant for the past five years due to legal disputes and corruption allegations will officially open next week, reports said.

Terminal three is to have a dry run on July 23, involving about 20 domestic flights, media reports said on Tuesday quoting Mr Michael Defensor, an aide to President Gloria Arroyo.

'We want a terror-proof, accident-free, criminal shielded airport,' Mr Defensor said, adding that 'even the smallest details are being looked into, like stairs, because we don't want a passenger to slip and break a leg'.

The US$600-million (S$810-million) terminal was completed in 2003 by a consortium of Philippine investors and Germany's Fraport AG, which owned a 30 per cent stake in the company.

It was however never opened due to legal disputes over contracts and was subsequently expropriated by the government claiming that certain provisions in the contract were onerous and that the modern terminal was sub-standard.

Fraport has sued the government to try to get back its investments worth US$425 million, but the World Bank's International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) dismissed the claim saying it did not have jurisdiction.

The 28-gate terminal with 140 check-in counters and 188 immigration counters was designed to handle some 13 million passengers a year. It is also expected to ease passenger traffic at Manila airport's two existing terminals. -- AFP