Building’s price ‘comparable to other gov’t projects’

MANILA, Philippines - The testimony of the contractor for the allegedly overpriced Makati city hall parking building, made before the Senate last week, shows that the cost of the 11-story building is comparable to other government projects, a Makati City government official said yesterday.

City administrator Eleno Mendoza said the city hall building “is comparable if not lower than other public buildings that the construction company built.”

Rogelio Peig, assistant vice president for legal affairs of Hillmarc’s Construction Corp. (HCC), said the city hall building averaged P69,549.92 per square meter.

He compared this to the Batasan Annex Building or the Mitra Building, built in 1998, which had a contract price of P462 million and had an average cost of P38,000 per square meter.

Peig said that if the Batasan Annex was constructed at the same time as the Makati city hall building was built, it would have averaged around P74,000 per square meter.

Peig, in his presentation, also showed that the south lounge extension of the House building cost P65,881.43 per square meter, and the north lounge cost P67,702.17 per square meter, Mendoza said.

The Calamba city hall, another HCC project, cost P31,000 per square meter in 2002 and would have cost around P65,000 per square meter using the current index price of the National Statistics Office, according to Peig.

He noted that the Calamba structure was not even built with the pile foundation that the Makati building has.

Mendoza also quoted Peig as saying that it is wrong to compare the cost of public buildings constructed under the procurement law (Republic Act 9184) and privately owned buildings.

Peig told the Senate that under the procurement law, the procuring entity is mandated to deal only with the general contractor while a private developer can purchase the material directly from the manufacturer. 

The additional two layers brought about by this requirement of the procurement law means that there will be additional two layers of taxes and mark-ups to shoulder on the part of the procuring entity, he said.

‘No corruption’ claims questioned

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said the recent statements coming from Vice President Jejomar Binay’s camp accusing his former subordinates of corruption belies his claims that there were no irregularities involved in the construction of the Makati City Hall Building 2.

Cayetano issued the statement after Binay’s new spokesperson, Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla, described former vice mayor Ernesto Mercado, general services department head Mario Hechanova and the late city engineer Nelson Morales as a triumvirate of corruption. 

Hechanova claimed that the bidding for projects in Makati had been rigged, allegedly upon Binay’s instructions. 

“Before there was no overprice, no corruption. Now there is corruption and Binay knew nothing about it?” Cayetano said.

He said the statement made by Remulla was in direct conflict with the claims made by the Vice President that there was no corruption during his time as Makati mayor.