Still no bidding for SRP lot

Interested buyers of the three-hectare lot in the South Road Properties (SRP) may have to wait longer before they can participate in the bidding as the Commission on Audit (COA) 7 has yet to approve the sale of the property.

Assistant City Administrator for Administration Veronica Morelos said she received a letter from the COA 7 informing them the regional auditing office has referred the matter to its central office.

“We have yet to secure an approval, but we received a communication from COA informing us that they referred it to their central office. We will not start the bidding process unless we get approval from COA,” she said.

Earlier, the City Council had authorized Mayor Tomas Osmeña to dispose of three hectares of land in the SRP through a public bidding at P110,000 per square meter for a total value of P3.3 billion.

But before pursuing the transaction through public bidding, Morelos said the selling price had to be approved by the COA first, including the mode of disposal.

The City will sell the lot through public bidding.

The City initially set the first bidding on Jan. 23 and the second bidding on Feb. 8, but this was put on hold due to the lack of approval from the COA.

At present, Morelos said three developers are interested to join.

Federal Land Inc. had earlier expressed interest to purchase the lot and develop it into a residential and commercial hub.

Federal Land president Pascual Garcia, in a letter to Osmeña, is offering to buy the 29,881-square-meter Lot 1-F-8 for P115,000 per square meter for a total purchase price of P3.4 billion.

Morelos said they will immediately schedule the submission of bid documents, followed by the opening of bids, once COA approves the City’s transaction.

We will not start the bidding process unless we get approval from COA. VERONICA MORELOS Assistant City Administrator for Administration