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| Old Malolos City Hall |
This after the City Government of Malolos Employes
Association (CGMEA) president Danilo Valenzuela stated that the controversial project--to be financed by
a P350-Million loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines using the city’s
Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) as collateral-- was published yesterday
(Dec.5) in another daily paper.
Valenzuela said it is obvious that the original public
bidding set last Dec. 3 was flawed for failing to comply with essential
requirements of posting under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Electronic
Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and publication in a daily newspaper of general
circulation.
He alleged that Atty.Carlo Jollette Fajardo and Atty. Zaldy
Mendoza, chairman and member of the Bids
and Awards Committee, respectively, are
publishing the revised ‘Notice of Bidding’, in bad faith because his petition
for an ‘Injunction’ to stop the bidding for the P350-Million deal is not yet
decided by Malolos Regional Trial Court Judge Grace Victoria-Ruiz.
He said the Dec. 3 decision of Judge Ruiz declaring as “moot
and academic the request for a TRO” to stop the public bidding also set last
Monday (Dec. 3/12noon) was due to the pre-emptive move of Mayor Natividad to
recall the bidding process after succumbing to allegations of deliberately
concealing the project from legitimate bidders.
Mayor Natividad, who is also a lawyer, issued a Memorandum to the BAC early Monday
morning directing the BAC to issue a 'Bulletin' to all bidders and "to
repeat the bidding process." The
memorandum according to Valenzuela was a tactical maneuver that pre-empted the
RTC judge from issuing a TRO.
The mayor said that he made the move to erase any doubts on
the matter.
Mark Lester Santos, the BAC Secretariat head and chief of
the City Personnel department, went missing the entire week prior to the
scheduled bidding. Prospective bidders complained that inspite of their
pleadings, staff of Santos at his department only gave out Bid Documents and
Plans before the close of office hours last Thursday, Nov.29. The next three
days prior to bidding were holidays.
The CGMEA president said he has also filed last Nov. 29 a
criminal complaint against the three lawyers, all the BAC members, including
the Land Bank before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the alleged
anomalous deal.—EMIL G. GAMOS
