ILOILO City Council's bids and award committee will schedule the second auction sale and bidding before the end of October after no bidders participated in the first auction sale on September 30 of the city-owned Pavia lot.
City Administrator Norlito Bautista said they are now preparing another round of publication in two national newspapers and two local newspapers announcing the second auction sale of the lot at P2,500 per square meter as recommended by the Commission on Audit (COA).
Barangay Ungka I, Pavia lot has a total of 69,702 square meter to be sold at P2,500 per square meter or at a total of P174,255,000. It is considered a prime lot along the national highway in going to the municipality of Pavia and some 30 minutes away from Iloilo City.
The area was a housing project for city hall employees, but was abandoned by contractor Ace Builders Inc. in 1988 due to non-payment of the City Government after finding out that substandard construction materials were used in the housing project.
The City Council rescinded the Ace Builders contract in 2011 after futile efforts to locate contractor Alexander Trinidad in his last known addresses in Metro Manila and Iloilo.
Bautista said that under COA rules, failure of bidding for two times will push the City Government as lot owner to resort into a negotiated sale of the property.
The failed auction sale was presided by then city legal officer Jose Junio Jacela, who resigned from his position starting October 1, 2013.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog said earlier that the proceeds from the Pavia lot sale will be used to buy another lot inside the city for the construction of low cost housing project intended for city hall employees, who have no house of their own, including city teachers and policemen.