Friday, July 25, 2008 Carbon ramp contractor backs out By Rene H. Martel Sun.Star Staff Reporter
SOARING prices of steel and other construction materials prompted WT Construction to back out from building a P135-million ramp at the Carbon Public Market.
The move came three years after the company won the bidding for the project, and three months after it was reported that the City Government was willing to pay P6 million more for adjustments in the long-delayed construction.
“Willy Te was here to inform us they can no longer handle the contract. The price of steel has doubled, dako kayo ang saka,” said City Administrator Francisco Fernandez.
The mayor understood Te’s predicament and was amenable to having the contract with WT Construction rescinded. The City Government, though, will ask WT to return a P20-million cash advance for the company to start the construction, said Fernandez.
He said that Te visited City Hall last Monday and informed Mayor Tomas Osmeña of his decision to stop implementing the project.
Fernandez said that Te told the mayor the company could not absorb the increase in the prices of construction materials, under the contract price.
WT has started pulling out heavy equipment from the construction site.
The cash advance, which City Hall intends to get back, was the subject of last year’s Commission on Audit report that said the P20.175 million given to WT Construction in 2004 was illegal.
It could have earned interest for the City instead, said state auditors.
City Hall has complied with the recommendation and stopped giving 15 percent of the project cost as an advance payment to contractors of succeeding projects.
Fernandez said that although WT could ask for additional payment, Te did not want to risk asking for “price escalation adjustments” only to be turned down later on.
A new National Economic Development Authority and Department of Budget and Management guideline, he said, requires a contractor to finish the project before asking for a refund for extra expenses.
Te complained that the price of steel, among others, has doubled, and the project alone requires millions in kilos of steel.
Fernandez said that with the development, the mayor gave instructions to have the multi-purpose ramp’s design reviewed to cut costs without sacrificing the intent of the project.
Osmeña wanted the ramp to serve as a market structure with rooftop parking, and a flyover that motorists could go through for M.C. Briones St. to clear Quezon Blvd. of vehicular traffic.
Fernandez also said that that those vendors along Quezon Blvd. whose stalls were demolished will continue staying at the Unit II space since the mayor still wants the ramp built.
The City, he said, will just have to find a way to allocate more funds for the project and bid it out again.
He said City Market Administrator Rachel Arce needs to explain to the vendors why they must not return to Quezon Blvd.
The concerned barangays, he said, should also provide tanods to keep the vendors from rebuilding their temporary stalls along Quezon Blvd.
Ermita barangay officials are among those who have pressured the City to begin constructing the ramp.
On the initial plan to have Young Builders Construction pay rent for initially refusing to vacate Unit II, which delayed WT from starting the project, Fernandez said the City Attorney’s Office should seriously look into it.
