UNDER a joint venture agreement with Expedition Construction Corp. (ECC) signed on January 27, 2022, the former landfill in Inawayan, Cebu City and Pond A in South Road Properties will be developed. The company will convert the 15-hectare landfill and the 60-hectare Pond A into the site of a business center, recreation facilities and a medical facility.
EXPEDITION EXCITED in 2022. Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and Simon Paz, Expedition chairman and chief executive officer, signed the JVA. Paz's son Brian, then exulted, "We're excited to deliver to the people of Cebu City" the promised facilities. Brian said the project "will possibly begin next month (February 2022) as they were then "finalizing the detailed engineering design." Completion target: five years.
Almost two years later, last Wednesday, September 27, 2023, with the project reportedly not moving, the City Council, after a privileged speech by Minority Floor Leader Nestor Archival Sr., decided to invite Mayor Rama to explain the transaction. The contract, Archival alleged, "will deprive the city's constituents and the future generations" the amount of P135.8 billion.
CITY WON'T SPEND? 'NOT TRUE.' Archival, obviously less worried over the delay than on the potential monetary loss, said the City will get the short end of the bargain because while Expedition will acquire 30 hectares and the City 30 hectares under a supposed 50-50 sharing, the LGU will get only 12 hectares as the 18 will be for common use, such roads and parks.
Not correct that the City won't spend for the project since it will pay for making the roads and parks, concreting and utilities, said Archival. By his estimate, the City will get P53.2 billion while Expedition will get P135 billion. The City might as well fill up the site by itself, it will cost P1.2 billion. If they'll get the materials from outside, the city trucks going to Binaliw, they can return with diorite to Pond A, cutting the cost by about P600 million.
Even if the expense is P1.2 billion, Archival said, what we can get, minus the common area of 18 hectares, is 42 hectares or 420,000 square meters or P189 billion. Minus the P53.2 billion, which the City was to get from Expedition, Archival said, "we are short of P135.8 billion." The total the City can get, "if estimated at 550," is P231 billion, the councilor said.
ARCHIVAL'S MATH wasn't questioned by any of his colleagues. What Majority Floor Leader Jocelyn Pesquera bickered over was whether Mayor Rama would right then appear before the Sanggunian to explain. Archival said the mayor was OK about coming over, which Pesquera foiled with, "So you're speaking in behalf of the mayor?" After a recess, the councilors agreed to invite the mayor to the October 4, 2023 session, along with all the documents related to the project.
WHAT MAY NEED EXPLANATION, not by the mayor but among the councilors themselves, is why in the seven sessions in which the JVA with Expedition came up, the City Council allegedly never discussed the unsolicited proposal of Expedition.
Archival traced the flow of the project through the City Council mill, thus:
[] June 23, 2021: Expedition's proposal to City Council.
[] July 21, 2021: Proposal not discussed, as Expedition, invited to the session, didn't show up.
[] August 4, 2021: Endorsed to City Council by ad hoc committee.
[] September 22, 2021: Endorsed Joint Venture Selection Committee, which reported competitive challenge process, publications and other requirements of JV ordinance.
[] September 29, 2021: Draft of JVA discussed on the Sanggunian's Citizens Hour and councilors heard an Expedition lawyer, an expert on public-private ownerships and JVA's endorsement.
[] October 6, 2021: Resolution authorizing the mayor to sign JVA discussed.
[] October 13, 2021: Discussion on the resolution continued, then the voting.
MAYBE NOT ENOUGH. The councilor complained about the proposal not having been discussed. Archival must mean, not discussed enough "as there are a lot of issues that could've been discussed," such as, he said, compliance with the JVA ordinance and conditions before the notice of award.
Yet his recent complaint focused on the City being hugely disadvantaged -- no he didn't say "cheated." Apparently, he blamed the lack of discussion on the proposal: not studied enough, then talked about enough. And who's to be faulted for that? The City Council itself, which is dominated by the Barug majority. But Archival stopped short of blaming anyone.
One may wonder though (1) why Archival's theory was missed or skipped over by the JV Selection Committee and the office of the mayor and (b) how it took Archival himself to arrive at the conclusion when he must have, or could have, the information needed about the terms of the deal.
POST-CONTRACT CORRECTION. And it's not a new refrain and not a new problem. A number of deals had gone through the local legislature, with the public and the councilors realizing to their horror, only after the ordinance was signed and the contract with the private party sealed, that the City was stolen blind or almost.
Sometimes, the private party will yield to a supplemental agreement, as Megawide/Cebu2World did to the corrections on the Carbon Market JVA that the mayor wanted.
Or the defects and their costs are just wiped away, as those from the past garbage contract must have been. The public knows some charges were filed against the suspected looters. But the public is not told about changes in the garbage collection system and how it's now paid and whether the City will get back its lost money.