CEBU - Even though Cebu province was declared ineligible by the Joint Venture Selection Committee to bid on a 50.6-hectare lot of the South Road Properties last week, the formal letter from JVSC to the provincial government has not been finalized until now.
The JVSC recommended last Friday the denial of the appeal of Capitol to submit a competitive challenge against the proposal of Filinvest Land Inc. for the lot.
But Cebu City acting Mayor Michael Rama yesterday instructed his staff to follow up on the letter from the JVSC Secretariat.
The first time the province submitted bid documents last December 22, JVSC declared them unqualified to bid because the joint venture ordinance only required private entities and corporations to participate.
The province also failed to prove it had the financial capacity and technical expertise for a real estate project or a project of the same nature.
Last January 5 Cebu Province submitted a letter of appeal on grounds that a local government unit has corporate powers that would enable them to qualify as a bidder and also submitted the duly audited financial documents that they lacked in the first attempt.
But for the JVSC, the documents submitted were still not sufficient enough to support both financial and technical capacities.
After learning of the recommendation of the JVSC and without receiving yet any correspondence, the province expressed plans to seek legal action to pursue its bid for the SRP lot.
According to the joint venture ordinance, the JVSC may award the project to FLI by February 15 since no other private entity had expressed interest to bid.
The Cebu City government has to pay the first quarter interest for the SRP loan in February which is expected to be covered by the initial P330-million payment of FLI once the contract has been signed.
The city is paying a million pesos as daily interest for the loan it acquired from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation for the SRP. — Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP (THE FREEMAN)