Court stops fire gear rebidding

MANILA, Philippines—A Quezon City court has stopped the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) from bidding out again a P243-million supply contract for firemen’s safety gear that was originally won and then lost by a supplier.

Judge Lita Tolentino-Genilo of QC Regional Trial Court Branch 91 directed the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) in favor of Kolonwel Trading/In Seung Apparel Co. Ltd.

In a three-page order dated March 16, Genilo ordered the DILG and Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) not to bid out the contract again.

The two agencies were also told not to transfer the amount of P242,825,829 allocated for the contract to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

The respondents in the petition filed by Kolonwel were Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, the BFP through officer in charge Chief Supt. Samuel Perez and the DBM.

Kolonwel had sought a review of the bid proceedings as well as a TRO and a writ of preliminary injunction, aside from other actions.

The court granted the TRO and directed both parties to submit their memoranda within 10 days after which the petition would be resolved.

“In order to preserve the rights of the parties pending the instant petition, a TRO is hereby issued pursuant to Section 7 Rule 65 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure.

“Respondents are hereby ordered to refrain from holding a rebidding of the procurement subject of this case and from transferring the amount of P242,825,829 allocated for the subject procurement to the DBM,” the court ruled.

The complaint arose from the conduct of a BFP bids and awards committee public bidding for firefighters’ protective gear.

Kolonwel Trading was deemed by former BFP Director Rolando Badilla to be the lowest bidder in October 2010.

Robredo then directed Perez to issue a notice of award and other documents to the winning bidder but Perez allegedly did not do so, declaring a failure of bidding instead.

This supposedly after the losing bidders accused Kolonwel Trading of submitting falsified documents during the bid process.

For its part, Kolonwel said it was denied due process as the failure of bidding was declared without a valid protest.

Kolonwel further said in its petition that it learned through a newspaper report that Robredo favored a new bidding for the multimillion-peso contract.

In January, the trading firm sued Perez in the Office of the Ombudsman for the botched procurement contract.