Contractor asks city not to remove batching plant

CEBU, Philippines - WT Construction Inc. is asking the Cebu City government to reconsider its notice for it to remove its batching plant from the city-owned lot at the North Reclamation Area.

WTCI vice president Willy Te said removal of the batching plant may further delay the road rehabilitation project in the area, which is about 70 percent completed.

“The removal of our temporary batching plant at this late and crucial stage when the project is nearing completion would only cause further delay and additional inconvenience and aggravation to the general public and motorist because we would then have to look for another area for our batching plant, aggregates stock yard and temporary facilities with very limited time and will result to temporary stoppage of our operation,” read the letter addressed to Mayor Michael Rama.

The city issued the notice on February 18, 2015.

WTCI has been operating the plant at Block 27 in NRA since April last year. The contractor is undertaking the P289-million concreting of the S. Osmeña Boulevard, which is a project of the Department of Public Works and Highways-7.

Te said they are willing to bind an agreement with the city for the temporary use of the property.

Te clarified that they are not taking advantage with the city on the temporary use of its facility. He said they just want to primarily fast track the project, which is set to be finished by April.

He added that the temporary use of the property helps them save time in transporting concrete mix materials to the project site.

Once completed, the project would benefit the general public, especially the motorists and the riding public, said Te.

The City Council earlier requested Rama to demolish the contractor’s batching plant since it is reportedly not paying any taxes to the city aside from the absence of any agreement or contract.

Moreover, Te said they developed portions of Block 27 and relocated the assorted scrap items and impounded vehicles from the site, among others, which “signifies our desire to compensate the city for our temporary use of the property.”

The improvement cost the contractor P1.5 million. — (FREEMAN)