BAC on garbage hauling contract: Firm of mayor’s pal not favored

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Bids and Awards Committee has denied insinuations that the recent public bidding for the services of a private hauler to dispose of Cebu City's garbage was rigged to favor a political ally of Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

BAC chairman Ronaldo Malacora said there is no truth to the reports that Pasajero Motors Corp. (Pamocor) was already declared the winner. Pamocor is owned by Kasambagan Councilman Franklyn Ong, a known political ally of the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan.

However, Malacora admitted that among the two bidders, Pamocor has the lowest bid. The other bidder was Jomara Konstruckt Corp., which has an existing contract with the city government to haul garbage.

"Wala pa ma'y na-awardan, so premature na ang ilang giingon nga nakadaog ang Pamocor. It doesn't mean nga lowest ka ikaw nidaog, that is why naa'y post-qualification," Malacora said.

 He said all bidding documents are now being evaluated by the members of the Technical Working Group for post-qualification.

Pamocor submitted the lowest bid price of P1,344 per ton of garbage while Jomara offered P1,350 per ton. Malacora said that having submitted the lowest bid does not guarantee Pamocor will get the contract.

He explained that there are three sets of documents that will be reviewed by the TWG during the post-qualification stage. These include the legal, technical, and financial documents.

Legal documents include the business permits, tax clearance, Department of Trade and Industry registration, Bureau of Internal Revenue registration, among others.

The technical documents, on the other hand, would show that the private hauler has enough equipment and an area accredited by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to dispose of the garbage. The financial document would show the contractor's financial capability.

Malacora said the post-qualification stage would take three to five days. He also denied having deferred the bidding to last week to wait for Pamocor to complete the requirements.

According to reports, the public bidding was originally scheduled for January 24 but was deferred to January 26 allegedly to allow Pamocor to complete the needed documents.

Malacora said the postponement was not to favor Pamocor but in compliance with the order of Osmeña to give other interested bidders the opportunity to participate.

He said the mayor wanted more service providers to participate because only Jomara was interested at first.

"In fact, it was being cancelled by the mayor kay usa ra'y niapil, gusto siya'g daghan moapil, gani iyaha to'ng gipa-post sa iyahang Facebook account," Malacora said.

There were several interested bidders but they failed to qualify for the bidding because of several requirements.

"Daghang interested pero dili sila mo-qualify ba kay daghan man gud ni og requirements ang public bidding gud, dili ni simple as naa kay units diha or unsa ba, you have also to satisfy the requirements nga gi-set sa balaod," he added.

Malacora also said that being the lowest bidder, Pamocor gets the priority in the post-qualification process.

"I-post qualify nato og una ang ni-tender og lowest bid, so after ana, kung pasar siya, daog na. If dili siya mopasar tagaan pa na nato siya og notice nga disqualify siya because of this and that," Malacora said.

The city government has allocated P78 million for the hauling of garbage by a private contractor for the next three months. The amount will be charged under the allocation of the Department of Public Services. (FREEMAN)