Rama: No compromise, graft in CCMC project

Despite the easing of  bidding guidelines for the P600 million Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) project, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said quality and accountability won’t be compromised.

“There is nothing to worry about,” he told a media forum yesterday in City Hall, “because (I have) never been known for graft and corruption since (I started public service in) 1992 until today.

Rama said he  was a mayor with “no sacred cow” and that “I don’t have a record of graft and corruption.”

He pointed to the head of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), Jose Poblete who is a lawyer and licensed civil engineer and his planning officer  Engr. Kenneth Enriquez.

“Put them all together, we don’t have to be worried about (the hospital project),” he said.

A  special BAC formed by the mayor after he declared a failure of bidding for the CCMC project last December has decided to   rebid the project with a higher budget of P600 million.

The  rebidding is open to all bidders, including the one disqualified in last year’s initial bidding.

Quality

The BAC removed an earlier requirement set by the CCMC adhoc committee for qualified  bidders to have undertaken a hospital project similar in cost to the  CCMC within the last five years.

Rama said his administration always followed the rule of law and observed transparency and accountability.

READ: Lowest CCMC bidder rejected anew 4-3

“Let’s move forward and let the rule of law be followed. What has been done so far, everything is within the ambit of the law,” Rama said.

Rama said the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) also has a group of engineers to oversee the project implementation to ensure its quality even without the requirement.

Rama also assured those who attended yesterday’s forum that the rebidding of the CCMC project is already moving and he ordered all those handling it to move with “expediency and urgency.”

‘Professional beggar’

Aside from the P600 million appropriated by the Cebu City government, Rama said more pledges and donations are coming in.

He said he will continue  the role of “professional beggar” to fund the hospital project.

Rama said he talked with the president of Toyota Motors in Manila last Wednesday evening on the project.

He said he will take company officials to a tour of the current CCMC makeshift hospital.

Other pledges from SM and a group of Filipinos in Las Vegas are also coming in.

Usurpation

Rama also said he is not “receptive” of the proposed ordinance creating a special account for all donations and appropriations for the new CCMC.

While he hasn’t received a copy of the ordinance proposed by Councilor Eugenio Gabuya, he said he ordered the City Legal Office to review it.

The proposed ordinance will place all donations and appropriations in the city budget to the CCMC under a trust fund.

Gabuya said this will prevent appropriations for the hospital project from being used for another purpose like the realignment of the P300 million budget for the CCMC project for the cash aid of senior city residents.

“I don’t have any problem with the City Council so long as they mind their business and we mind ours. That ordinance is a restriction that borders on encroaching on (the executive department’s) jurisdiction, an obstruction bordering on usurpation of authority,” Rama said.

City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo earlier told the council last month that the city’s general fund and a trust fund are “two different, distinct accounts” and “there will be serious legal questions” if they were put together.