Sen. Sergio Osmeña III is on the war path.
After his grumblings against the Megawide-GMR consortium were ignored by Malacañang, the Cebuano senator is firing on all cylinders.
After taking the fight for the contract to modernize the Mactan airport to the Supreme Court last week, he now wants heads to roll at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA).
Osmeña is expecting the Supreme Court to act on his motion for a “special raffle” of his petition to stop the government from awarding the Mactan airport expansion project to the Filipino-Indian group today.
“We asked them to raffle. We filed a petition for the immediate raffle on Monday so they can decide on it,” Osmeña said in a TV interview over the weekend.
In his motion, Osmena asked the High Court to “immediately” raffle his “instant petition” and that “the Division to which the instant Petition will be assigned [to] act immediately” upon the Petition.”
Osmeña’s counsel – the Bernas Law Offices – filed the motion last Thursday, April 3.
STRONG LEGAL POSITION
Asked to assess the chances on whether the High Court will grant his petition for a temporary restraining order, he said: “We’re pretty confident but it all depends on which way you look at it. We feel we have a very strong legal position and the other side I think feels that way too… so let’s see. It’s up to the court,” he said.
The Cebuano senator had asked the Supreme Court to stop the government from proceeding with the awarding of the contract for the expansion and modernization of the MCIA to the Megawide-GMR consortium.
His 31-page petition was filed a day before the MCIAA convened its board which voted to approve the recommendation of the pre-qualification, bids and awards committee (PBAC) to award the contract to Megawide-GMR, the consortium that submitted the highest bid for the project.
Osmeña, however, wants the consortium of Filipino-owned Megawide Construction Corp. and Indian developer GMR Airports disqualified from bidding for the airport project and in effect nullifying the contract awarded to them.
NO WINNING BIDDER
Osmeña insisted that the award was questionable as there was no winning bidder.
“There’s no winning bidder. The winning bidder, you’ve got to win on quality and you’ve got to win on price. We always tend to make the mistake that whoever gives the highest bid, wins. Well, if he’s disqualified, he cannot have the winning bid. So this is why we’re questioning the process that the DOTC undertook because they did not exercise the due diligence that is required in projects like this,” he said.
Osmeña, moreover, took a jab on Friday’s voting of the MCIAA board.
“I believe it was a unanimous vote. It was a rubber stamp vote hindi ko po alam. Alam naman natin anong nangyayari sa administrasyong ito (I really don’t know. We all know what’s happening to this administration),” he said.
Osmeña, an ally turned critic of President Aquino, went on to call for heads to roll at the DOTC. The DOTC is headed by Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, a former congressman who is also the secretary-general of the administration-backed Liberal Party.
“The DOTC has been stumbling all over the place. Wala tayong car plates, hanggang ngayon di pa nabi-bid out yung LRT-1, ang daming failed bid. Yung MRT-3 … naawa ako sa mga riders … kulang na kulang ang mga cabs. Hindi nila kayang gumawa ng additional cabs at palakihin yung mga tren. Yung (NAIA) terminal 1.. four years na yan the worst airport in the world. Hindi ko po alam. They promised to fix that in year 1, it’s already year 4. They have not gotten anywhere.
AWFUL MANAGEMENT
“It’s what I call awful management. Dapat palitan na yung mga kapalpakan ng mga NPAs (non-performing assets) na yan sa gabinete,” he said.
(The DOTC has been stumbling all over the place. We don’t have vehicle license plates. Until now, the Light Railway Transit-1 expansion has yet to be bidded out. There have been a lot of failed bids. The Metro Rail Transit … I pity the riders. The railway lacks trains and cabs and they couldn’t do anything.
“The Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 has been the world’s worst airport for four years. They promised to fix that in year 1 of the Aquino government and it’s already year 4. They have not gotten anywhere. It’s what I call awful management. They should fix the problem and get rid of the non-performing assets in the Cabinet.)
FILINVEST- CHANGI REACTION
Meanwhile, the Filinvest-Changi consortium in a statement expressed disappointment over the decision to award the MCIA contract to the Megawide-GMR group.
The statement was signed by Joseph Yap, authorized representative of Filinvest-Changi.
“We are disappointed by the DOTC pre-qualification, bids and awards committee (PBAC)’s dismissal of the issues we had raised during the post-qualification review of the MCIA Project.
“We believe that the conflict of interest issue and the other matters raised are valid, relevant and substantive to the bidding process and rules.
“Our primary concern in raising these issues has always been to ensure adherence to the bidding process and rules in order to produce the right outcome for the Philippines. This helps guarantee that the Mactan Cebu International Airport will truly become a world-class airport.”
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