Monday, March 26, 2007 After all those loans, market remains stuck in first phase By Aledel G. Cuizon Sun.Star Staff Reporter
ALTHOUGH City Hall already contracted the second phase of the new Mandaue public market, there are still unfinished works for phase one of the P379-million project.
Last week, phase one contractor Rosal Infrastructure Builders informed the City that “suspended works” for the footing tie beams, pile caps and sockets need to be completed yet.
For example, only 13.5 percent of the work on beams and girders was accomplished as of Dec. 15, 2006.
For P93.8 million, Rosal contracted phase one, which covered the planning, design, pre-implementation and construction of the structure’s foundation.
But it had to stop because “operating capital was running low.”
Fire gutted the old public market in 2002, forcing stallholders to sell their wares along the roads surrounding the ruins of the old building in Barangay Centro.
In his 2005 State of the City Address, Mayor Thadeo Ouano assured that the public market would be operational by the third quarter of 2006.
Last March 16, Rosal general manager Alberto Surla wrote Ouano and said that materials for the tie beams, pile caps and sockets, and 18 units of pre-cast concrete columns were prepared at the job site and were available for more than a year already.
It is the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) fifth engineering district, however, that should supply the materials and construct the sewage treatment plant and cistern tank.
To speed up the project’s completion, Rosal provided the needed materials such as boulders, steel bars and lumber.
As agreed with the mayor, city engineer and city administrator, Rosal also mobilized heavy equipment such as a crane, backhoe, payloader and dumptrucks.
When everything was ready, Rosal requested the City for a supply of ready-mix concrete.
But up to now, the request was not yet acted upon.
Sought for comment, Ouano said he is referring the matter to the City Engineer’s Office.
Repeated calls to the cellular phone of City Administrator Serafin Blanco, who was tasked to monitor the mayor’s projects, went unanswered.
Completion of the new market, located at the back of the city sports complex, is funded by a Development Bank of the Philippines loan.
Aside from its location, the project drew flak from Ouano’s critics because of its cost, which is more than the original P250-million estimate for the Cebu International Convention Center.
