CDC not ready to award Mimosa to Gatchalian firm

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga — The Clark Development Corp. (CDC) said it is not ready to award the 215-hectare Mimosa Leisure Estate (Mimosa) to a firm owned by “plastics king” William Gatchalian as it acknowledged a virtual protest by the latter’s lone Korean competitor.

“The award shall be made by the CDC board of directors only after the special committee on Mimosa privatization submits its recommendations on the results of the bid evaluation, post qualification, and the final resolution of the motion for the reconsideration filed by the Hanwool consortium,” CDC president Liberato Laus said.

Last Friday, Gatchalian’s Waterfront Philippines, Inc. (Waterfront) turned out to be the lone bidder for Mimosa after the Korean consortium Hanwool I & D Corp. (Hanwool) was disqualified on “technical grounds”.

The CDC noted that “only two out of 10 prospective bidders, Waterfront Philippines and a Korean consortium led by Hanwool I & D Corp., submitted their bids to lease, operate and manage the former Mimosa Leisure Estate”.

“The Waterfront submitted bids comprising of eligibility documents, technical proposal and financial proposal which were initially subjected to a non-discretionary ‘pass or fail’ method of evaluation during the opening of bids in accordance with the requirements stated in the bidding document and existing laws and regulations governing public bidding,” Laus said.

Hanwool allegedly failed to submit such requirements in its second of three envelops that were required by the CDC’s bids and awards committee and was thus disqualified. It was, however, given three days within which to appeal for reconsideration.

“Waterfront Philippines has submitted a compliant bid and is now being subjected to bid evaluation and post qualification,” the CDC said.

But should Hanwool lose in its appeal, Laud said that Waterfront’s proposal would still “undergo detailed evaluation to determine and verify responsiveness as to authenticity, correctness and validity of the legal, technical and financial documents, as well as such other information as CDC deems necessary and appropriate relative to the terms of reference (TOR) of the privatization of former Mimosa Leisure Estate.”

He said that “once the bid is determined to be responsive and advantageous to CDC, the notice of award shall be issued.”

CDC officials have not disclosed how much Waterfront’s bid was, but sources said it was P1.6 million, higher than the minimum P1.4 billion imposed by the CDC.

Laus said the P1.4-billion minimum requirement does not include financial obligations of the former Mimosa owner to its creditor banks, worth about P4 billion.

The CDC took over Mimosa during the term of former President Estrada for the alleged failure of its former owner Mimosa Leisure and Reports Corp. (MLRC) to pay land rental arrears worth some P46 million.

In July last year, the CDC awarded Mimosa to the Korean firm NTM Jin Hung Joint Venture Corp. but the award was cancelled after the firm failed to pay “goodwill advanced payment”.

The second highest bidder then has continued to assert its right to take over Mimosa as a result of the cancellation of the award to the NTM corporation.

Mimosa covers a 38-hole world-class golf course, Holiday Inn hotel, a clubhouse, some 200 Montevista villas, Pagcor-operated casino and industrial laundry, and Veranda Restaurant.