Businessman Crisologo Saavedra files a complaint before the Visayas Ombudsman against Gov. Hilario Davide III and other Capitol officials over the 20-story resource center. CDN Digital photo | Rosalie Abatayo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A Cebuano businessman today went to the Visayas Ombudsman to lodge a complaint against Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III and at least five other Capitol officials for prequalifying WT Construction to bid for the the 20-story resource center project at the Cebu Provincial Capitol grounds.
Crisologo Saavedra, also an anti-corruption advocate, filed the complaint against Davide and other officials in the provincial government’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) on Monday, January 28, 2019, for allowing WT Construction to qualify to bid for the project even if the company was allegedly “lacking in technical qualifications.”
He asked the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas to investigate and hold the governor and the BAC members liable for allegedly violating the Government Procurement Process Act (RA 9184) and the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019).
Saavedra, in his eight-page complaint, also named as respondents BAC chairman and Provincial Administrator Mark Tolentino, BAC vice chairman and General Services Office (PGSO) head Jone Siegfred Sepe, BAC members Engr. Hector Jamora (Provincial Engineer), Danilo Rodas (Provincial Budget Officer), Lawyer Donato Villa (Provincial Legal Office), and the BAC’s technical working group (TWG) that conducted the post-qualification process for the WT Construction.
“This is a very controversial case because the governor says that WT [Construction] is qualified. However, I was able to discover that WT is not qualified,” Saavedra alleged when he spoke to reporters after filing his complaint.
“If we talk about the technical qualification, WT has to have a track record of (having built projects worth) P700 million, similar to the (Capitol building) project. WT has only 300 million worth of project,” added.
In earlier interviews, Sepe said that WT Construction was the only firm qualified to bid for the resource center.
He said another bidder, the Manila-based Philmat Construction, also wanted to construct the building but failed to meet the technical requirements because it did not have previous contracts amounting to half of the P1.3 billion contract price of the resource center.
WT Construction also qualified in the post-qualification process conducted by the TWG, Sepe said. The post-qualification process was supposed to verify from other government agencies if the documents submitted by the bidder were true.
It can be recalled that WT Construction built the P800-million Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) in 2006.
However the CICC project was blanketed with controversies as an audit report of the Commission on Audit found that the project proceeded without public bidding./bjo/elb