MANILA — The groundbreaking for the reconstruction of the most-affected area (MAA) of war-torn Marawi City is expected to be held third week of September, officials of Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) said Friday.
“We expect to complete the negotiation by the end of next week. And with this schedule, we expect the groundbreaking by third week of September,” Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Undersecretary Ace Millar said during the Bangon Marawi press briefing in Malacañang.
Millar said the Bangon Marawi selection committee is still conducting negotiations with PowerChina.
TFBM chairman Secretary Eduardo del Rosario said “numerous issues” encountered in the ongoing selection of qualified developers have delayed the groundbreaking that was originally set last May.
Despite the delay, del Rosario said it would not affect the TFBM’s deadline of completing the MAA rehabilitation by December 2021.
He said they are just making sure that the selection of the right developer is in accordance with the law.
“We are doing this to ensure that we will get the right developer and the right specifications will be met with the right standards that we would like to have to ensure that the MAA rehabilitation will be in accordance with the standard that we have set,” del Rosario said.
Del Rosario said the first negotiation with the Bangon Marawi Consortium did not work out due to the legal, financial and technical capacity of the developer.
“We declared an unsuccessful negotiation because they were not able to comply with all the required technical, financial and legal requirements,” he said.
He said the ongoing negotiation with PowerChina “is moving smoothly” with an estimated rehabilitation amount of PHP16.8 billion.
“But the nitty-gritty of the negotiation on the details, it will be undertaken starting today and we hope to complete it by next week,” he said.
Del Rosario said part of the ongoing negotiation is the identification of projects that will not be covered by the Swiss challenge.
“Now, we are identifying projects. We would like to separate it so that we will, instead of joint venture agreement that will proceed to Swiss Challenge, we would rather apply the negotiated procurement,” he said.
He said income-generating projects are presumed to fall under a joint venture agreement while the rest “will be a negotiated procurement.”
“We will know at the end of next week what would be the final outcome of our negotiation – and that will be the basis of our awarding,” he added.
Del Rosario said he supports the joint venture agreement where the developer will be the one who will invest. (Jelly Musico/PNA)
