This is what the Resource Center Building is expected to look after construction./contributed
THE PROVINCIAL Board will discuss on first reading today measure giving Gov. Hilario Davide III the authority to enter into a loan agreement amounting to P1.525 billion with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for the construction of the 20-story resource center.
Davide last week approved the recommendation of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) to award the contract for the construction of the building to WT Construction.
WT Construction is the only firm that qualified to bid for the project during the open bidding last November 9. On November 27, BAC recommended to Davide that the contract be awarded to WT after it passed the post-qualification process.
The firm pegged the construction of the resource center at P1.29 billion, inclusive of the cost of demolition of the building.
Provincial Budget Officer Danilo Rodas, said the amount that the provincial board will acknowledge in passing the ordinance authorizing Davide to borrow money is still P1.525 billion even if the contract price is only P1.29 billion.
“Yes, only for the purpose of allowable loan but not necessarily the actual release of the loan,” Rodas said in a message sent to Cebu Daily News.
Rodas however said the actual amount to be loaned will be P1.29 billion, the contract price, and not the allowable loan.
The plan to construct the Resource Center inside the Capitol compound was met with opposition from heritage advocates and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
NHCP earlier questioned Provincial Administrator Mark Tolentino why the project was proceeding without presenting a new development plan for the resource center to the commission.
The objections of the NHCP was because the construction could affect the symmetry impression of the main Capitol building, a declared heritage site since 2008.
Tolentino in a statement said they have already met with NHCP Chair Rene Escalante middle of this year where they discussed the new developments for the resource center and agreed that presenting a new development plan would no longer be necessary.
Jose Eleazar Bersales, a heritage advocate and researcher, said the provincial government should find another place for the resource center rather than sacrificing the view of the main Capitol building.
“It’s up to Governor Davide. What does he want his legacy to be, a monstrosity or someone that respects history and the past?
They have to recognize that there are many other places for such a building to be put up inside Cebu City,” Bersales told CDN.
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