NIA reviews bids of Korean firms for Iloilo megadam
ILOILO CITY—The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has started reviewing the bids submitted by two Korean firms last year for the construction of the P11.2-billion megadam project along the Jalaur River in Calinog town, Iloilo province.
Lawyer Genever Dionio, manager of the NIA’s legal services office, said the agency opted to reevaluate the Korean firms’ bids, instead of appealing the order by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 84 barring the government agency from rebidding the project contract.
The court, in January, denied the NIA’s motion asking it to reconsider its Oct. 20, 2016 order, which stopped the agency from rebidding the project.
“Our central office opted not to appeal the court order as to cause no further delays,” Gerardo Corsiga, NIA Western Visayas regional manager and Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project Stage II (JRMP II) project manager, told the Inquirer. “We are already in the process of reevaluating the bids and the results will be submitted to the court.”
Failure of bidding
The megadam project, one of the big ticket projects of the Aquino administration, was supposed to start construction in 2013 but hit a snag when the bids and awards committee (BAC) declared a failure of bidding because of deficiencies in the documents submitted by the firms Daewoo and Daelim.
The NIA said Daewoo failed to submit a lump sum price analysis while Daelim lacked documents on its cash flow.
The NIA was about to rebid the project when Daewoo sought a court order to stop the process.
The firm secured a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction from the Quezon City RTC Branch 84 to stop the NIA from holding another round of bidding on the ground that the BAC committed grave abuse of authority.
Daewoo earlier submitted a bid price of $172 million (P8.63 billion), which was lower than the contract cost of $196 million (P9.79 billion).
Dionio said Daelim also appealed an order of the court denying its motion to intervene in the case.
The megadam is funded by a $203-million loan from the South Korean government through its Export-Import Bank’s Economic Cooperation Fund and a P2.2-billion counterpart fund from the Philippine government.
Stringent requirementsJRMP II is the second of a two-stage project tapping the water of Jalaur River, one of Panay Island’s major waterways.
It involves the construction of three dams, including a reservoir, an afterbay and catch dams; a 6.6-megawatt hydropower plant; and an 81-kilometer highline canal.
Aside from the court case, stringent requirements demanded by funders in the early stage of the project also contributed to delays. The project also faced opposition from indigenous communities and environment groups.
