City Legal Office set to respond to bidder’s complaint

Cebu City Hall’s legal office is preparing its reply to the protest letter of the second lowest bidder of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) project.

City Attorney Jerone Castillo said he will  be sending an official reply even before Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama returns. The mayor is out of town for a one-week vacation.

“We are preparing our reply based on the letter we received. We will furnish copies to the media if so asked,” Castillo said.

The joint-venture of SCDI-MCEI in Manila cried foul over the mayor’s memorandum declaring a failure of bidding for the P300 million Phase 1 of the hospital project last year. They said it was “highly illegal and irregular” and “is clearly  and obviously intended to unduly influence or exert undue pressure on the BAC members and/or officials of the city government of Cebu to take an action which favors or tends to favor a particular bidder.”

They said they were expecting to be awarded the project as the second-lowest bidder after being notified by the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) secretariat and asked for additional requirements for their post-qualification.

Legal backing
This came after the BAC disqualified the lowest bidder, the joint-venture of WTG Construction Inc. and A.M. Oreta and Co., last year for alleged misrepresentations and falsification in their bid documents.

Sought for comment on the letter, Rama said he has assigned Castillo to answer the bidder.

“The matter is with legal. I’m on vacation. You may direct your query to Castillo. Such action is with legal backing, I mean with their endorsement,” Rama told Cebu Daily News in a text message.

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