Body to study proposed water source at SRP

CEBU – Following the recent signing of the joint venture agreement between the city government and the Filinvest Land Inc., the city will form another committee that will choose the company that will supply water to the South Road Properties.

Cebu City administrator Francisco Fernandez said acting mayor Michael Rama is expected to issue a memorandum soon to form a new committee to tackle the unsolicited proposal of Pilipinas Water Resources Inc.

“It may be the same composition as with the JVSC that tackled the Filinvest proposal or other persons may be appointed. It’s the mayor’s discretion,” Fernandez said.

However, there are reports that the new committee may be composed of the same persons that earlier studied the FLI’s proposal.

Joel Mari Yu, managing director of the Cebu Investment Promotions Center, the marketing arm of the SRP, said utilities such as water and electricity should already be finalized now that FLI is expected to start developing the portion covered by the deal in the next six months.

FLI will first develop the 10.6 hectares that is covered by the outright purchase for the high-end residential and commercial spaces as well as the first phase for the 40-hectare lot that is under joint venture with the city.

Yu admitted that before Mayor Tomas Osmeña left for Houston, Texas, to seek treatment of the cancer in his urinary bladder in October, the mayor had instructed him and SRP manager Nagiel Bañacia to award the contract for the water provider under a joint venture.

The city has already chosen to get electricity from the Visayan Electric Company because SRP is still under its franchise area.

Yu said all utilities will have to pay distribution fee to the city government considering that SRP is a special economic zone.

Presently, a desalination plant with a capacity to produce 800 cubic meters of potable water per day is already operational at the SRP that supplies the water needs of the Bigfoot Entertainment complex and construction activities in the next two years.

In the event the city awards the contract to PWRI, a consortium of Mactan Rock Industries Inc. and the Lhuillier Group, the city will ask it also to operate the desalination plant at the SRP and to provide all necessary water infrastructures inclusive of the pumping stations, reservoirs and pipes.

Once the new committee is formed, it will post a notice inviting other private entities to submit a challenge against the proposal of PWRI. — Ferliza C. Contratista/WAB (THE FREEMAN)