BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – There is no overpricing in the Iloilo Convention Center, said Director Edilberto Tayao of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region 6.
Last week, a party-list lawmaker raised alarm over a possible overpricing of the center, a pet project of Senate President Franklin Drilon.
Tayao said the total floor area of the convention center is 11, 693 square meters, not 6,400 as erroneously claimed by Kabataan party-list’s Rep. Terry Ridon.
“The project only costs P63,800 per square meter, not P109,375 per square meter,” Tayao clarified.
In House Resolution No. 1466, Ridon said the P700-million Iloilo Convention Center is possibly overpriced, and may even be more expensive – on a per square meter valuation – than China’s Bird’s Nest Stadium, site of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“Kung saan-saan pa nila ikinukumpara. Beyond compare ‘yan…we cannot compare one area to the other area,” said Tayao.
Ridon also claimed the bidding for the convention center may have been rigged in favor of Hilmarc’s Construction Corp., also the controversial contractor of the allegedly overpriced Makati City parking building.
“How can it be rigged when it was a public bidding,” said Tayao. “It was (done in the) open.”
The DPWH regional director also said the opening of bids was even covered by television stations.
Ridon had claimed Hilmarc’s bagged the Iloilo Convention Center project through negotiated bidding in December 2013.
Drilon allocated P200 million of his 2013 Priority Development Assistance Fund for the construction of the convention center.
Other sources of funds included the P200-million from the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority and another P200 million from DPWH.
On July 8, 2014, Drilon announced that another P100 million had been infused to the project through the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
The project was publicly launched in 2012, and construction is being hastened for it to be finished in time for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meetings in 2015.
Tayao said Phase 1 of the convention center is now 86 percent complete.
He also said the total estimated cost is P747 million and for Phase 1, the contract amount is P492 million.
Phase 1 includes the building’s foundation up to the roofing and the wrapping-in electrical and mechanical planning.
Works left for Phase 1 are the installation of air-conditioning units, doors and windows, and wall paints, said Tayao.
The second and third phases, which will also be bid out, will not cost more than P63,800 per square meter, said Tayao.
He is optimistic that the convention center will be completed and ready by June 2015 to host the Independence Day celebration with President Benigno Aquino III leading./PN
