The city wants the public to give a chance for the ongoing negotiation process between the local government and the private proponent for the public market development to proceed and for the project to be realized.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong stated he is on top of the situation and when he sees that the proposed development of the public market will not do good for the city, then he will call it off.
However, the Mayor claimed that with the way things are going on in the negotiation process, there is no compelling reason for him to forego the project, thus, the public needs to understand his decision to allow the process to proceed despite the opposition from some city officials and concerned stakeholders in the public market.
At present, the members of the city’s Public-Private Partnership for the People Selection Committee (P4-SC) are now negotiating with their counterparts from SM Prime Holdings, which was earlier given the Original Proponent Status (OPS) for the said project, for the crafting of the final terms of reference of the proposed public market development.
Under the city’s P4 ordinance which prescribes the guidelines in the implementation of the public-private partnership scheme, there are 19 steps to be undertaken by the P4-SC prior to the determination of the private partner that will implement the desired project that will be undertaken through the said mode.
After the final terms of reference of the project shall had been crafted, the same shall be subjected to the Swiss Challenge where other interested developers will be given a chance to submit a much superior proposal compared to the one presented by the OPS-granted company for evaluation and assessment by the P4-SC and for the determination of the final contract awardee.
Earlier, the city came out with 34 conditionalities which are the bases of the ongoing negotiations with SM Prime Holdings for both parties to agree on the final terms that will be published and subjected to the Swiss Challenge. Based on the initial plans of the project, the winning proponent have to construct a 5-story structure with 2 levels of basement parking within the 3-hectare area identified by the city as the site where the public market will be constructed.
The first 2 floors of the structure will be owned and managed by the city government while the remaining floors and basement parking will be managed and operated by the selected developer.
The 34 conditionalities being imposed by the city are the more contentious provisions of the terms of reference that need to be agreed upon by both parties before these will be offered for other proponents that had signified their intention to participate in the Swiss challenge.
The P4-SC awarded the OPS to SM Prime Holdings upon the recommendation of a technical committee created to study the findings of the committee on the proposals of the proponents that signified their intention to participate in the public-private partnership process pursuant to the city’s P4 ordinance. (Photo courtesy by Joseph Manzano)
