CEBU City’s Joint Venture Selection Committee (JVSC) is set to endorse to the Cebu City Council the notice of award to Megawide Construction Corp. to develop Carbon Public Market despite Cebu CFI Community Cooperative’s intention to submit a counter proposal.
Cebu City Administrator Floro Casas Jr. in an interview on Oct. 28, 2020 said the committee will submit to the Council an endorsement to authorize Mayor Edgardo Labella to sign a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA).
Should the Council authorize Labella to enter into a JVA, the City will then issue the notice to proceed with the development.
Casas said the JVSC will also meet to thoroughly discuss how to treat the letters from the CFI.
Casas said to date, the committee has not received any other proposal for the redevelopment of Carbon Market aside from that of Megawide.
He said the City has also not received comparative proposals that would challenge Megawide’s offer.
Casas said the CFI only sent letters to the City, but has not submitted a formal comparative proposal.
He said the CFI only gave the City a P50,000 challenge fee, but failed to comply with the other requirements.
Casas said as indicated in the receipt, the challenge fee was still subject to the CFI’s compliance of other requirements such as a notarized letter of intent.
Pursuant to existing rules, Casas said a comparative proposal should be submitted within 10 days.
In a letter to Casas dated Oct. 16, CFI chairman Winston Garcia said the 10-day deadline was too short for a multibillion-peso project.
“It is bad enough that an interested participant is only given 10 days to submit a comparable proposal to a multi-billion project within a measly period of 10 days, your committee refuses to furnish the needed information in order to properly appraise and enable the interested participant to prepare for the particular type of development it will be challenging and the rules for its challenge,” said Garcia.
Councilor Lea Japson in a privilege speech, asked the JVSC to study the CFI’s proposal carefully before deciding on who should undertake the Carbon redevelopment.
Japson pointed out that 60,000 of CFI’s members are Cebuanos.
Carbon Public Market is the oldest and largest public market in Cebu City. It is located at M.C. Briones Street in Barangay
Ermita. (JJL)