DBM denies ASEAN 2017 bid rules favored one company

MANILA, Philippines — The government complied with bidding procedures when it awarded a deal to manage events for the Philippines’ hosting of this year’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Tuesday.

 

A Vera Files report claimed that the government had “tailor-made” the criteria for bidders of the P2.8 billion events management contract to favor StageCraft International, a firm headed by a certain Francisco Zabala. StageCraft, the only company that submitted a bid, offered to undertake the events management for P1 billion.

 

Events Organizer Network Inc. (EON) has asked the budget department to declare a failure of bidding, saying the process only favored one bidder and therefore disadvantageous to the government.

 

EON also claimed that the Budget department violated the law when it treated the contract as “goods” rather than “services,” which requires a longer process.

 

Diokno denied that the process had irregularities and was changed to favor StageCraft. He said since the ASEAN would be held this year, the government has to “act with dispatch.” He said a bidding is not necessarily a failure even if only one party submitted an offer.  

 

“We’re running out of time already…There will be a meeting sometime in January. There’s really a sense of urgency,” Diokno said.

 

“There’s a one qualifying bid that’s valid. That’s not a failure,” he added.

 

“We complied with all the steps.”

 

Diokno noted that StageCraft is also the company that won the deal to manage the events for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation hosted by the Philippines in 2015.

 

“The total budget for that service that was bid out was P2.9 billion You know how much was the winning bidder’s bid? P1 billion. Ayaw pa ba natin ‘yun (We don’t want that)?

 

The Budget chief said he was surprised that EON was complaining about the process even if it did not submit a bid.

 

“The kind of services that he is providing is very limited,” Diokno said, apparently referring to EON Managing Director Carlos Mori Rodriguez, whose letter to the bids and awards committee was cited in the Vera Files report.

 

“He is not qualified to bid. In fact, he did not bid, all right?”

 

Diokno explained that the contract involved a combination of goods and technical services. He said EON wants to break up the contract into five lots so it can join the bidding for one project. He said protocols chief Ambassador Marciano Paynor opposed the proposal because it would mean talking to five people instead of one.

 

“EON is just a small company,” Diokno said.