Work  resumes on TRO-held P200M

bus terminal project in Zamboanga

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Dec 14  – Work can resume anytime this month or next year on a P200 million Integrated Bus Terminal (IBT) project suspended by the courts for alleged anomalies in the bidding process.

Zamboanga is the only city in the Zamboanga Peninsula region without a bus terminal of its own. Municipalities in the provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur have long constructed their own income generating bus terminals along the highways from this city to other points in the region and Mindanao.

Bidding for the project started some six years ago, but the awarding and bidding process has been subject to controversies until the Regional Trial court suspended work on the project that started sometime in October last year.

City Legal Officer Jesus Carbon said contending contractors for the project have arrived at an amicable settlement to pursue the project in a meeting at city hall Friday morning.

The bus terminal project has been an announced and promised flagship project of then Mayor Celso Lobregat since the 2007, 2010 local election.

Early on her term, City Mayor Maria Isabel Climaco has asked the city legal office to conduct a review of the city’s IBT project whose implementation was   suspended by the Regional Trial Court for alleged anomalies in the bidding process for the project.

Work has started on the P200 million project by the middle of last October 2012, but contending contractors asked the court to stop the implementation of the project last November.

Mayor Climaco said it would be to the advantage of the city if the project be completed since this was already started and money already spent for the terminal.

The terminal conceived some six years ago was to serve all public utility vehicles, particularly big busses coming from the provinces in the Zamboanga Peninsula and other parts of Mindanao.

The planned bus terminal located some eight kilometers east of the city proper was to stop the entry of big buses to the commercial and government center with its narrow roads.

Last November 23, 2012 the Regional Trial Court, 9th Judicial Region, Branch 17, Zamboanga City issued a Preliminary Injunction against the continued implementation of the project.

Work on the project was stopped Nov 26 in compliance with the injunction of the RTC.

The court order was handed down in connection with the case filed by RCDG Construction Corporation and R.U. Aquino Construction and Development Corporation, a joint venture, against then Mayor Lobregat and the city’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).

The city government bided out the project in January 2009 and awarded the project to RCDG in April 2009.

However despite the awarding of the project, another bidder questioned the accreditation of the winning bidder.

As a result, Mayor Lobregat cancelled the award for RCDG although it had won the bidding and secured the favorable recommendation of the BAC.

Meantime, although the award for the winning was recalled by the mayor, the city government rebidded the project and work started on the project last October 2012 by another contractor not involved in the initial bidding for the project in 2009.

In view of the implementation of the project by the city government, although it was already awarded to an earlier bidder, the contractors questioned the implementation of the project.

In its writ of preliminary injunction, the Regional Trial Court ordered the mayor and the city’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) to desist from “re-advertising, re-bidding and other acts in furtherance of the re-bidding of the aforesaid Integrated Bus Terminal.”

Following the issuance of the order, Mayor Lobregat, through his lawyers, filed a motion for its reconsideration, which was denied by the court the same day.

The city legal officer who is also a retired regional trial court judge said that the amicable settlement and compromise agreement between the contractors approved last Friday will enable the city to continue with the project.

The compromise agreement will also cause the courts to dismiss the case that RCDG raised against then Mayor Lobregat, the birds and award committee and the local government.

The case in the regional trial court was initially pursued by Dimsum Construction that questioned the award of the contract to RCDG.

When Lobregat recalled the contract early issued to RCDG, RCDG joined Dimsum in filling a case against the city government.

In the meantime, the city’s BAC awarded the contract to Ben Hur Construction last year. Ben Hur started work but was stopped last November.

The city legal officer said the compromise agreement between RCDG and Ben Hur will now allow the continuation of the project.

The compromise agreement required that Ben Hur will contract RCDG for the supply of sand and gravel for the project that will cost about P3 million. (ZNS)