MOA between city and firm to develop city zoo illegal

CEBU, Philippines - The City Council Committee on Laws has found the transaction between the city government and a private company to develop the Cebu City Zoo as “violative” of the procurement law.

City Councilor Edgardo Labella, chairman of the Committee on Laws, said in his committee report that the award to be given to Yupangco Holdings Corporation for the development, operation and maintenance of the Cebu City Zoo in barangay Kalunasan violates the Government Procurement Reform Act.

Labella said the law requires that services and projects are to be procured through a competitive bidding.

 “There is no showing that the award of the services for the development, operation and maintenance of the Cebu City Zoo to Yupangco Holdings, sans competitive bidding, falls under any of the exceptions allowed by RA 9184, or the procedure for the alternative methods of procurement were observed,” the report reads.

The committee then recommended that the Memorandum of Agreement between the city and Yupangco Holdings be disapproved so that proper procurement procedures can be complied with.

The city has chosen Manila-based businessman Robert Yupangco, operator of Zoobic Safari Adventure, to develop and operate the City Zoo.

However, since the lot is owned by the province, Capitol warned recently it would sue Yupangco and the city government should the development is pursued to protect the interest of the provincial government over the 70,000-square-meter lot.

In 2006, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia held groundbreaking rites for a Women’s Center she plans to build on the same property.

The zoo property is part of the lot donated by the Province to Boys Scouts of the Philippines in 1969. — Ferliza C. Contratista/JMO (THE FREEMAN)