Body gives nod to award SRP lots to highest bidders

CEBU, Philippines - After reviewing bid documents for three weeks, Cebu City’s special technical working group has recommended the issuance of the notice of award to a consortium of three developers that made the high bid for a 45-hectare lot at the South Road Properties.

TWD head Jose Daluz III said he already forwarded the recommendation to the city’s committee on awards yesterday for approval.

“The technical working group has already recommended for the award for SM (SM Prime Holdings), and Ayala (Ayala Land-Cebu Holdings Inc.) and FLI (Filinvest Land Inc.) also because they were found responsive and compliant,” he said.

On June 30, the committee on awards declared the consortium of Ayala Land, Cebu Holdings Inc. and SM Prime Holdings as the highest bidder with their P10.009-billion bid for a 26.3-hectare property, while Filinvest Land Inc. was the highest bidder with P6.7 billion for a 19.2-hectare property.

On that day also, the city earned P1.6 billion in revenue from the bid security bond of the declared highest bidders for the sale of the lots.

Daluz said the TWG has reviewed the bid documents of the highest bidders for several weeks after the bidding.

“We submitted it (recommendation) to the committee on awards. They can approve our recommendation. Mag-wait pa sa meeting. Basta, we have done our part. We have post qualified our bidders and they were found responsive and compliant,” he said.

Also yesterday afternoon, the three developers went to the office of Daluz to be clarified on the payment, 50 percent of which should be paid upon the issuance of the notice of award.  The total bid price for the two lots is over P16.7 billion.

Daluz said the city is expected to receive P8.3 billion by next month. The remaining 50 percent should be settled in two to three years on installment basis.

Daluz said the P8.3 billion will be used to pay the city’s SRP loan, fund part of the annual budget, and settle other obligations.

Mayor Michael Rama announced in his State of the City Address this month that the city will be debt-free with the sale of the SRP lots.

Cebu City took a P4-billion loan from Japan to establish the 300-hectare SRP. The loan is payable in 25 years and amortization payments, made twice a year, will continue until 2025.

The city government has been paying the loan at P500 million to P550 million a year.

Daluz said Land Bank of the Philippines has assessed the balance of the loan and said that it is still at least P2.5 billion.

He said the city is preparing for the first supplemental budget this year and it will have the payment for the loan so that the city would already be able to pay the full amount of the debt it incurred for the reclamation project. — Jean Marvette A. Demecillo/RHM (FREEMAN)