More than 15 companies from different parts of Asia and the Pacific will challenge the company granted Original Proponent Status (OPS) in the multi-billion Baguio City Public Market development.
City Administrator Bonifacio Dela Peña, who heads the city’s Public-Private Partnership for the People (P4) Screening Committee said the companies expressed eagerness to participate in the “Swiss Challenge”.
A Swiss Challenge is a method of bidding where an interested party initiates a proposal for a project. After naming the OPS, government then publishes details of the proposal and invites others to bid for the right to executing it.
Upon receipt of bids, the contractor with the OPS gets an opportunity to match the best bid and still land the project.
In a related development however, Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong expressed reservations over the result of P4 voting process.
This, after Robinson’s Land Corporation (RLC) landed OPS despite lacking requirements.
Magalong said he wants his administration to remain transparent and ordered publication of whatever actions the P4 Committee made, including how votes went in favor or against the holder of the OPS.
With the Mayor’s observations, a cloud now hovers upon the future of the project.
Dela Peña disclosed, if the mayor will go by present screening outcome, negotiations between the City Government and RLC will proceed with finalization of the Terms of Reference (TOR) detailing the project, all within 45-days. Once the city publishes the TOR, the Swiss Challenge ensues.
If the mayor disapproves, however, the market development project under current terms is in limbo.
Dela Peña meantime said the P4 Screening Committee might still look into other options under the city’s P4 ordinance, which naturally would delay realization of the project.
It could be remembered, the present administration’s lists the market’s development as one of its priorities in its 15-point agenda. (Dexter A. See)