MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/5 Sep) − Malaybalay City Mayor Florencio T. Flores Jr. challenged his detractors over the controversial P225-million public market complex in Barangay 9 to go to court if they have proof that indeed money changed hands in the project.

Flores also broke his silence on the allegations the city government hired a contractor that ended up subcontracting the project to another firm. 

“It’s for them to settle. We did not deal with a subcontractor,” the mayor said. He added that the supposed subcontracted firm, Dreamworks, Inc., who tried to collect payment from the city government, has stopped doing so. 

But Flores said they are seriously evaluating the capacity of contractor H.R. Lopez Co., Inc. whether they are able to finish the whole project.

“Extending the project (for another term with the contractor) is no longer an option,” he said. 

The 540-day project was initially scheduled for completion in November 2007 but the project has been fraught with doubts of the contractor’s capacity and problems over payment scheme.

As of now, the firm is completing only the first phase, the public market. The integrated terminal and commercial complex phases have yet to be done.

Flores said for the remaining two phases, they will have to pick from only two options: to rebid or for the City Engineer’s Office to take over. He has been mum about possible legal action against the contractor. 

Sources said the city government has allegedly sacrificed its other functions because of the delay in the completion of the project. A source said City Hall has used funds for other expenses to pay the amortization of the loan it acquired for the project. 

The public market, an economic enterprise unit, is said to be self sustaining. Proceeds of the operations of the three buildings would be used to pay the loan.

Flores denied this, saying the money used to pay contractors is taken only from the loan acquired with Land Bank of the Philippines. He said city government allotted regular budget for the amortization.

The mayor said they have planned to open the public market within the month of September. 

In the past, other city officials said the market would be opened in time for the parochial fiesta in May, then in July, and this time from the mayor himself, “within the month”. 

He admitted, however, that the original design of the building has been modified to meet adjustments. 

“It’s only the ground floor that’s being completed,” he told this reporter in the sidelines of a provincial government affair with Australian Ambassador Rod Smith for the memorandum of arrangement signing of the Provincial Road Management Facility Grant.

In March, Flores told this reporter they were leaving it to the City Legal Office to study the right move after the City Engineer’s Office certified that the firm, H.R. Lopez Co., Inc., had not finished the project despite the nine-month extension.

The firm is supposed to finish within the extended time the whole project, including the integrated terminal and the commercial complex adjacent to the public market.

Based on the slippage alone, Flores said, the city government could already take action against the firm.

Vice Mayor Ignacio W. Zubiri shared the mayor’s position but stressed there should be amicable settlement.

The project was first extended from February to July 2007. In July 2007, the Commission on Audit’s Legal and Adjudication Sector considered the contract void, a decision which the firm appealed in September that year.

Construction was stopped in September 2007, according to city engineer Teodocio Pabillaran, but H.R. Lopez Co. said they stopped in November 2007.

On July 3, 2008, the COA Legal and Adjudication Sector declared no legal impediments to the validity of the contract, prompting the firm to request for the nine-month extension since “they are ready to complete the balance of work.”

Flores endorsed the request on August 1, 2008 to the city council, which approved the extension three months later, on October 21. But councilors noted that the firm resumed construction on August 15, or prior to the approval.

Zubiri said then that the P250-million loan acquired for the project will incur interest only when money is withdrawn. He said rules might allow another extension if the firm asked for it.

“But I prefer termination,” he said. (Walter I. Balane / MindaNews)

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