Foreign contractors ruled out of Marawi rehabilitation projects

TASK FORCE Bangon Marawi chairperson Eduardo D. del Rosario on Tuesday confirmed that all Marawi City reconstruction contracts will be awarded to domestic construction firms in the absence of a joint venture with foreign companies.
He said awards will be made via public bidding with some components of the project to be conducted under emergency procurement rules.
“There is no joint venture agreement. It’s all public bidding,” Mr. Del Rosario said in a briefing at the Palace.
He added the debris management, road networks and underground utilities components of the rehabilitation will be conducted under “emergency mode of procurement.”
The Procurement Reform Act or Republic Act 9184 allows the government to directly negotiate with a contractor in cases of extreme urgency and necessity.
“No more [outside companies]. It’s all local,” he said when asked about the involvement of foreign companies.
He said the task force changed its mind on the joint venture mode “when three departments… told us that there may be some legal problems if we pursue the joint venture agreement as a modality of procurement, because not all the projects will generate income because in a joint venture agreement you negotiate, with a feasibility study, that this particular project will earn profit. And from the profit, you share with the government providing the land and the investor providing the facilities or development. There is no profit sharing in the road networks and there is no profit sharing in the construction of school buildings. So anyway, those who feel that there are some sort of legal issues if we pursue the joint venture agreement have sound arguments, so we agreed.”
He also said that “maybe one or two” projects in Marawi can generate income “just like the Convention Center, but a joint venture will take a long process.”
Out of the total of 22 components of Marawi’s rehabilitation, debris management is the most important, according to Mr. Del Rosario.
“Debris management is the key. We have to remove the debris. If you have seen the whole area, it’s about 90% devastated. We cannot start anything unless and until that we have removed all this debris. It started last November, it was stopped in December and it resumed last week. And we are going to complete the debris management not later than August or September,” he said. — Arjay L. Balinbin