‘Nullify Catanduanes infra contract due to overpricing’

A former member of Congress, a former military general and the Philippine Military Academy Class 1959 Foundation petitioned the Supreme Court yesterday to order the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to stop work on one of the four packages of the Catanduanes Circumferential Road Improvement Project for being allegedly overpriced.

According to the lawyers of former Cavite Rep. Plaridel Abaya and retired Commodore Plaridel Garcia, the principal petitioners, they want the Supreme Court to look into the project which they alleged to have violated Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act, which Abaya himself co-authored.

Under RA 9184, bid prices for a project should not exceed its cost ceiling.

"We do not know where the (excess) money went," said lawyer Alfredo Ligon III.

"We want the project nullified, the award reviewed and the (contract) rebid," Ligon said.

The questioned project involves the rehabilitation and improvement of a 79.818-kilometer portion of the Catanduanes Circumferential Road, which runs from the towns of San Andres and Sta. Domingo to Virac and Bato and finally to Viga town, and the construction of five bridges.

Started last October, the project is funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. It is being undertaken by the China Road and Bridge Corp. which won the contract on May 7 last year.

In their petition, Abaya and Garcia said the contract was awarded to China Road and Bridge Corp. even if its corrected bid of P952.5 million was substantially higher by P213.8 million than the approved budget for the contract of P738.7 million.

Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane could not be reached for comment on the petition. - With Jose Rodel Clapano