Serge asks Supreme Court anew to scrap Mactan airport deal

Senator Sergio Osmeña III (Inquirer File Photo)

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III has filed a second petition with the Supreme Court seeking to nullify the award of the P17.5 billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport passenger terminal project to the GMR-Megawide consortium.

In a supplemental petition, Osmeña asked the Supreme Court to provide provisional relief for what he called the “unmistakable haste” of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) in awarding the project to GMR-Megawide just a day after he filed on April 3 the original petition for certiorari and prohibition.

In his original petition, Osmeña sought the consortium’s disqualification from the project and the issuance of a temporary restraining order or writ of preliminary injunction or both to stop the DOTC, the DOTC Prequalification Bids and Awards Committee and the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority from giving a notice of award or executing a concession agreement with GMR-Megawide.

Osmeña assailed the qualification and capability of Megawide Construction Corp., the local partner of GMR Infrastructure of India, which, he said, “has not been delivering quality construction work” and that its poor performance “causes accidents and further expenses to the Filipino people.”

Collapse of perimeter wall

He cited the suspension of the construction of a business process outsourcing complex in Cebu City, a project of Megawide, after a perimeter wall of the complex collapsed in August last year, forcing five families and 50 other individuals renting spaces in the area to vacate their homes.

The city government’s investigation attributed the wall’s collapse to poor workmanship and the below-standard structure that Megawide built for soil protection.

The petition also cited a report of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) involving a work-site accident on a 9-meter high elevator core-wall steel or rebar assembly at the Belle Grande Manila Bay Casino Resort in Parañaque City, another project of Megawide.

The report said the assembly accidentally “tilted” when one of the guy’s ropes or “serga” snapped due to strong winds. The accident prompted the DOLE to issue a directive regarding the use of standard serga and sufficient bracing for all steel or rebar assemblies.

Failure to meet deadlines

In his supplemental petition, Osmeña also pointed out that Cebu City Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa had deplored Megawide’s failure to deliver on time the P13 billion worth of school building projects of the Department of Education (DepEd) awarded to it under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program of the government.

The project involved the construction of some 8,300 classrooms in Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog that were supposed to be completed in March this year. Megawide reportedly requested for the deadline to be extended to April and again to December.

Abellanosa quoted a DepEd report, which said that as of March this year, only 25.69 percent of the classrooms were completed, 46.49 percent are ongoing and 28.11 percent still to be started.

The issue was brought up during the hearing on the Mactan-Cebu airport project conducted on March 12 by the House committee on transportation.

PPP projects

Abellanosa also questioned Megawide’s capability to implement the three to four PPP projects worth P50 billion that had been awarded to the company.

He noted that the amount “is too large,” even for big established players like Ayala Corp., DM Consunji Inc., Filinvest Land Inc., JG Summit Holdings Inc., Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and San Miguel Corp., at least for public projects.

He expressed apprehension that even as Megawide is delayed in delivering the DepEd classrooms, it is undertaking projects that are five times its net worth.