After procurement was aborted winning Talisay bidder cries foul

CEBU, Philippines – A winning bidder has accused Talisay City administrator John Yre de los Reyes of circumventing bidding rules to supposedly favor certain bidders in the procurement of polo shirts for City Hall employees.

John Yre, son of Mayor Johnny de los Reyes, currently sits as chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee.

In an interview with The FREEMAN, Arlyn Ponce, owner of Angel's Sportswear, said she won as the lowest bidder against other suppliers for the 2,022 pieces of polo shirt worth P707,700.

The bidding took place last August 19, 2014 but the young de los Reyes allegedly only informed Ponce that the procurement for the Civil Service Commission month polo shirts was cancelled last September 10.

Ponce said she was dismayed to learn that the bidding was cancelled.

According to her, the bidding of the uniform was even advertised at the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System, a central portal that hosts information on the procurement of goods and general support services, civil works or infrastructure projects and consulting services undertaken by procuring entities of the government.

In her letter-complaint addressed to John Yre, Ponce accused the latter of favoring other bidders.

"Such action compelled me to believe that the reason for the cancellation of the purchase of shirts was because it was not AA Trading, his favored supplier, that won the bid," Ponce said.

Letter of Intent

Ponce revealed that after they submitted her Letter of Intent and bought bidding documents last August 19, a certain Fely Cambal of Trust Marketing came to her office and introduced herself as one of the bidders for the shirts.

According to Ponce, Cambal informed her that the shirts were already ordered from Cambal by the city administrator.

Ponce added that Cambal even requested her not to participate in the bidding and instead offered to share 1,000 pieces of shirt.

Ponce also said six personnel of Talisay City government came to her office for post-qualification and told her the award was ready for pick-up.

In a separate interview, John Yre insisted there were no irregularities in the cancellation of the bidding.

John Yre said it is already the tradition of the city government employees and officials to wear the official Civil Service Month shirts during the opening of the celebration of the event on September 1.

He maintained that they cancelled the procurement because they were not able to bid it on time such that the shirts would be ready by the start of September.

"We are already in the late September and producing the shirts would defeat its primary purpose -- to celebrate and to be recognized during the opening celebration," John Yre said in his letter addressed to Roy Alcoseba, the BAC secretariat.

Furthermore, John Yre said the polo shirts cannot be used in playing sports activities.

"It would be very inconvenient on the part of the sports players to wear their sport shirts because primarily, polo shirts are not intended for sports activities," he said.

John Yre dismissed insinuations he favored other bidders.

"Nganong nagtahi man sila daan nga wala pa man gani gyud na-award sa ilaha. That is true that they are the lowest bidder pero dili mo-follow nga kay sila man ang lowest bidder, sa ila na nato i-award," John Yre said, adding that the BAC has the power to approve or disapprove or cancel the bidding.

Ponce described John Yre's reasoning as a flimsy excuse for the true reasons behind the cancellation.

"I would like to emphasize that in the bidding documents issued to us and on PHILGEPS publication, there was no provision whatsoever that the Talisay City government reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders," Ponce said.

Ponce suspected that the cancellation was done deliberately and tainted with bad faith as she claimed Angel Sportswear was not John Yre's favored supplier.

"It is a grave abuse of decision, unreasonable, unacceptable and malicious. Conveniently, cancelling a purchase after a public bidding has been done, where prospective bidders have spent so much time, efforts and costs for the bidding documents, preparations, bidders bond and transportation, was unfair and unjust especially to the winning bidder," she added.

John Yre said he will welcome any investigation to be conducted in connection with Ponce's allegations.