CLARK FREEPORT – Plastics magnate William Gatchalian won the bidding for the 215-hectare Mimosa leisure estate at Clark Freeport.
Chairman Rizalino Navarro of Clark Development Corp. (CDC) said Gatchalian’s Waterfront Philippines, Inc. (Waterfront) was given Mimosa after South Korean firm Hanwool I & D Corp. (Hanwool) was disqualified for lack of documents.
Waterfront and Hanwool were the only bidders, he added.
Navarro said the CDC board had to declare Hanwool “ineligible” for failing to submit the required bid security.
“A bid security is a guarantee that the bidder will not default in its offer which must be submitted with the bid documents operative on the date of bid opening and payable to the procuring entity,” he said.
Navarro said they dismissed Hanwool’s motion for reconsideration for being “premature” and having lacked the imprimatur of the CDC board.
The terms of reference (TOR) approved by the board empowered the CDC special committee on Mimosa privatization (SCMP) to evaluate bid documents and to decide on the motion for reconsideration, he added.
Sources said Waterfront offered P1.6 billion for Mimosa, whose minimum bid was at P1.4 billion.
Hanwool had prepared a bid of P1.8 billion, although this was now known during the bidding as it was disqualified even before its envelop could be opened, sources added.
Hanwool’s motion for reconsideration was dismissed by the SCMP in a letter signed by its chairman, Noel Manankil.
Hanwool’s legal counsel Alberto Habitan again wrote the SCMP and insisted that Manankil alone had no power to decide on the motion for reconsideration on grounds that that power belonged to the CDC board.
“Oversight should not be allowed to defeat the primary objective in holding a competitive bidding,” he said.
“The primary objective of public bidding is to ensure that the government gets the most advantageous terms as to redound to the benefit of a greater number of people.”
In response, Navarro said since the CDC board had granted the SCMP the power to act on Hanwool’s motion for reconsideration, “we cannot favorably act on your request for the necessary approval or disapproval of the resolution on the motion for reconsideration.”
“(Hanwool) may exercise its option to avail of the Protest Mechanism under Section 55, Rule XVII of the
Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 9184.”
However, this would require Hanwool to post an unrefundable bond of at least P25 million, Navarro said.
The state-owned CDC took over Mimosa during the Estrada administration after its former owner failed to pay its rental
arrears to the CDC.
Mimosa covers a 38-hole world-class golf course, Holiday Inn hotel,
a clubhouse, some 200 Montevista villas, Pagcor-operated casino and industrial laundry, and Veranda restaurant.