NSC union hits plans of evaluation body

Displaced workers of National Steel Corp. (NSC) questioned yesterday plans of the evaluation committee (EC) to hold "closed-door consultations" with bidders who did not even make a lease price offer.

National Steel Labor Union-FFW (NASLU-FFW) president Simplicio H. Villarta Jr. said this is the only bidding where the terms of reference (TOR) were ignored, no clear parameters set, and only the so-called EC has an idea of what the "best offer" looks like.

The EC was created at the instance of Trade Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II in May this year after facing an impasse on the NSC plant, which had been shut down due to debt problems since November 1999.

An interim lease agreement entered into in May 2000 by the working board of NSC and Allengoal Steel, a company organized by former NSC workers, was objected to by some creditors.

Last Oct. 25, 2001, a third round of bids for leasing the plant was called, but only Allengoal came up with a lease price offer at P20.5 million per month plus 40 percent of net profit. This percentage sharing is still negotiable.

"We agree to liberalization of the terms, as we in fact objected to some unrealistic requirements like the P1-billion deposits required by the TOR, but to allow and consider bids without a quoted lease price is to stretch liberalization to the limit," Villarta said. It is in fact an abdication of a sane and rational process operating within realistic parameters, he added.

He said Roxas has been acting like a mindless pendulum that swings from one extreme to another. From P1-billion guarantees, he goes to zero. Cathay Pacific Steel Co.’s (Capasco) bid makes no mention of a guarantee at all while Allengoal, whom the workers have joined in its lease bid, offered a P25-million deposit for the equipment maintenance guarantee and an additional P75-million guarantee for its rehabilitation and operations work.

"I am not surprised that the reaction has mostly been that the EC is trying to compare oranges and apples, the fresh orange of Allengoal and the rotten apples for all the others," Villarta said.