‘Hinay-hinay’ on roadblocks to Capitol project

Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, usually a prudent and careful public official, seems inclined to throw caution to the wind when he said Tuesday (Dec. 18) he would no longer need the authority of the Provincial Board to proceed with the P1.3 billion Capitol Resource Center building.

Governor Junjun’s basis: a supplemental budget earlier passed by the PB appropriated money to pay for the Development Bank of the Philippines loan that will finance the 20-storey building.

Gwen thought so too

That’s what then governor Gwen Garcia, or more precisely her lawyers, thought in the Balili back-filling case.

The P24.46 million paid to Supreme ABF Construction, which won the April 2012 bidding and supplied the materials to fill parts of the Naga property, was supposedly covered by the P50 million the PB had appropriated for “airport/seaport and other economic enterprise.” Did that appropriation serve as authority to the governor?

The Feb. 13, 2018 ruling of then ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales that ordered her dismissal said it was a valid appropriation but it “did not validly confer authority to enter into a contract with ABF Construction.” Gwen failed, Morales said, to cite “the provision in the appropriation ordinance which authorized her to enter into a contract.”

A big risk

Maybe Morales erred, which Gwen in her appeal from the ombudsman ruling contends. Gwen could be right: she might be upheld by the higher court. But Governor Junjun would take a big risk if he’d proceed with the project minus the PB authority.

Junjun mentioned the Quisumbing ruling (GR #175527 of 2008), in which the Supreme Court said the PB appropriation must be specific, not generic, so as to require no longer a separate authorization.

The question in the CRC project is: would funding to pay for the DBP loan be adequate authorization for Junjun to contract with the winning bidder, WT Construction? The risk may go a few rungs higher because the authority for the loan was still pending with the PB when the bidding was conducted last Nov. 9.

Simple majority

There’s also the question whether the vote last Dec. 17 on the resolution authorizing the governor to sign the deal with the contractor would need only a simple majority. (The vote on the authorization was 8-5-3 in favor).

They’ve sought the opinion of the Department of Interior & Local Government, which is likely to cite the Local Government Code provision that requires only a simple majority to authorize the construction of a building but the majority vote of all PB members to authorize its lease to private parties. (Majority vote of all members is also required for contracting the DBP loan.)

Other concerns

[] Whether Capitol already has a new plan for the CRC building that would meet the standard on heritage protection demanded by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

[] Measures to cope with the problem of traffic coming in and getting out of the Capitol area, since the CRC is not just a government building but also a commercial complex. Planners need to address the traffic baggage in Junjun’s CRC project.

Viable but…

“Hinay-hinay lang,” a Cebuano-Bisaya phrase that has fused itself into Tagalog on its own merit, may be the operative word.

The apparent haste has spawned a lot of talks, from alleged kickback to offer of bribery (as reported by The Freeman this week). CRC could be a viable project although its critics call the choice of the largely-commercial enterprise “dubious.” Yet as it appears, the core issue of priority of needs has not been settled among the local lawmakers themselves.

Requirement of express approval by the PB and NHCP top the major concerns. Which also include the traffic mess it could cause and the “questionable” choice of a project on which to spend such a huge amount