CLOSE to P7 million is needed to restore to level ground the excavated area where the P1.3-billion Provincial Resource Center was supposed to rise, and the governor wants the contractor to shoulder the cost.
Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia stood pat on her decision that the Province will not shell out funds to backfill and compact the site.
In a letter sent to WT Construction Inc. (WTCI) on July 4, 2019, lawyer Frank Eduard Dinsay V, Garcia’s chief of staff, called out the contractor for its persistence to continue the construction activities despite the governor’s opposition.
This created a “huge gaping hole that, based on our engineer’s estimate, will require at least 18,000 cubic meters of common burrow to restore.”
“The project site must be covered immediately not only because of its unsightly and dangerous condition, but more importantly, because the excavated area has rendered the property absolutely useless. Needless to emphasize, Governor Garcia holds your company accountable for causing this serious problem and calls on WTCI to immediately restore the project site to its original condition at its own cost,” a portion of the letter read.
On Monday, July 8, Garcia said WTCI’s excavation work was done in bad faith.
“Magpakita sila’g good faith kay so far, bad faith sila (The contractor should show good faith because so far, all they have shown is bad faith). Despite my pronouncements as early as right after the elections, nagpaspasay silag kotkot (they continued with the excavation works),” Garcia said.
On June 3, a few weeks before Garcia assumed the governorship, her lawyers delivered letters to former governor and now Vice Gov. Hilario Davide III and WTCI.
The letters served as a “final notice” that Garcia would not honor the contract of agreement that WTCI and the Provincial Government had signed on Feb. 15 when she returns to Capitol as governor.
On June 30, Garcia issued Executive Order (EO) 1 to immediately stop and permanently discontinue all works related to the 20-story facility.
In a letter to Garcia dated July 2, project coordinator Danilo dela Cruz said WTCI wants to pull out its survey equipment as all the works related to the resource center have been permanently discontinued through EO 1.
On the same day, WTCI president Willy Te also wrote a letter to the governor informing the latter that they had complied with her directive upon receipt of the EO.
Garcia, though, had instructed the Provincial General Services Office to prevent the contractor from pulling out its heavy equipment from the project site, including a backhoe, crane and survey instruments.
The Provincial Engineer’s Office estimated that the backfilling and compaction of the excavated area alone would cost P6,972,108.
In a letter dated July 5, dela Cruz wrote again to the governor, requesting that their personnel be allowed to withdraw the survey equipment as it has been idle since the issuance of EO 1.
“Aside from the expenses of maintaining our current personnel and equipment and the costs arising from the delay in our construction schedule, we run the risk of equipment failure or breakdown if our personnel are not allowed to just turn on the equipment regularly for maintenance, but without operating them just because of your EO. We, therefore, request that our personnel be allowed to do so while your suspension order is still in effect,” the letter read.
To this, Garcia replied: “I have not suspended it. My order is to stop. It’s not to suspend. What is he thinking? I will still negotiate with him? This is not a suspension. This is stoppage. I don’t think they understand... In the meantime, di gyud sila mosabot sa akong gisulti, magposing lang gihapon na ang mga equipment diha (they refused to understand my position, their equipment stays there).” (RTF)