Before it could even begin, the proposed 300-hectare reclamation project in Pasay City is already causing cracks in the local government.
A day after the city council withdrew its support from the project recently awarded to SM Land Inc., the city legal office said the P54.5-billion agreement signed by Mayor Antonino Calixto with SMLI still stands.
“The Pasay City Government and the Pasay PPP (Public-Private Sector) Selection Committee stand by their findings and actions in entering into the joint venture agreement with SMLI,” city legal officer Severo Madrona Jr. said in a statement Thursday.
Madrona said the agreement signed last month was already “a perfected contract” and “was entered into by the city government after complying with all applicable laws, rules and regulations, and it was ratified by the city council.”
“Thus, it’s a valid and binding agreement between the city government and SM Land Inc.,” he said.
According to Madrona, the resolution which the council passed on Wednesday to recall three earlier resolutions in favor of SMLI violated the principle of due process and the constitutional rights of the company.
“The recall was done by the city council without giving SM Land Inc. the opportunity to explain and defend itself in a hearing,” he said.
He called the withdrawal “procedurally infirm” since it was hastily conducted “without due regard for the rights of those concerned or for the legal and moral implications of such an action.”
The city legal officer, who represents the executive department led by Calixto, said the agreement was still subject to review by both the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) and by the National Economic and Development Authority.
But Madrona said city council should have allowed this process to take its course.
The council said it was withdrawing its endorsement of the SM-led project in view of the “flaws” in the bidding process which were pointed out during a session last week by two other interested companies, Ayala Land Inc. and S&P Construction Technology.—Niña P. Calleja
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