Delos Santos out of CCMC bids committee

It’s almost final – Councilor Mary Ann Delos Santos will no longer be part of the bids committee for the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

Mayor Michael Rama was set to sign last night the memo  forming a special   Bids and Awards Committe (BAC) to handle the rebidding of  the hospital project, a potential P600 million contract.

It has  the same members as the former group, except for delos Santos.

This was the recommendation of City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo, the new BAC chairman.

He said a review of qualifications showed that BAC members should be personnel occupying plantilla positions in the city government.

“I think all will qualify except one” because her post is elective, he said, referring to Delos Santos.

Delos Santos was one of the vocal members in the BAC who had pushed for the post-disqualification of the  lowest bidder, WTGConstruction and its Manila joint venture partner AM Oreta in November last year for falsifying bid documents.

“Well, my being out of the BAC now is probably the price for  telling the truth, advocating transparency, public accountability and good governance,”  delos Santos yesterday told Cebu Daily News.

“However, I respect the decision of the mayor,”  the Team Rama member.

A displeased Mayor Rama had earlier criticized    the councilor for discussing the disqualification of WTG’s P275 million bid  in the media, an action he said was  “premature”.

Although the BAC stood by its decision to post-disqualify and voted 4-3 to reject the contractor’s motion for consideration ,  the mayor decided in the end to declare a failure  of bidding and revamp the BAC, creating two — one for infrastucture and  a special one for the CCMC project.

By coincidence, WTG Construction’s  main argument in its request to the mayor  for  reconsideration was that Delos Santos “had no right” to sit in the BAC as an elected official.

They cited the Republic Act 9184 of the Government Procurement Reform Act.

In the old BAC Delos Santos was a provisional member representing the end-user or  requisitioner since she headed the CCMC ad hoc committee created by the mayor in December 2013.

Castillo recommended that she be replaced by either the CCMC chief of hospital for operations Dr. Gloria Duterte or CCMC director for administration Rey Cris Panugaling

Other  members of the special BAC for CCMC are City Engineer Jose Marie Poblete; former councilor Jose Daluz III, the mayor’s chief of staff, Atty. Dominic Diño; Ferdinand Cañete of the City Legal Office; city health officer Dr. Daisy Villa and city budget officer Marietta Gumia.

They were all previously  appointed  by Rama in an Aug.  15, 2014 memorandum for the BAC for the CCMC.

“If these people enjoy his trust and confidence, since they were appointed, then I will recommend that he continue with them, reappoint all those qualified. Only those not qualified shouldn’t be appointed so that there will be no more legal questions on the composition of the BAC,” Castillo said.

In a  news conference yesterday, Mayor  Rama hinted that the review of  BAC  members was  the result of  “skirmishes” in the previous  bidding process.

“If I will have to exercise that prerogative (to choose), if Mary Ann will still be qualified, wala koy problema (I don’t have any problems). If Mary Ann is qualified, go ahead. I have no intention of usbon ang (to change the) BAC because I never mentioned nga mousab ko sa BAC sa CCMC (that I’ll change the BAC for CCMC). However, now that there is such a thing as during the skirmishes naa may (there were) issues on who are not and who should be or who should not be. I’m leaving it to the legal (review),” Rama explained.

He said though that Delos Santos will continue to head the CCMC ad hoc committee.

Sought for comment, Delos Santos said she was placed in the previous BAC by Mayor Rama and  was supported by a resolution of the CCMC ad hoc committee appointing her as representative of the “end-user”, the mayor’s office.

The councilor earlier gave a privilege speech,  voicing her dismay for being taken “off the helm” of the CCMC project.

She said she would  just focus on improving the city’s satellite hospital in barangay Guba as chairperson of the committee on health.

“What I can assure the public is that I will continue to advocate transparency and good governance. As a representative of the people I will do my best in whatever task that is given to me,” she added.