Reclamation agency keeps off Pasay execs’ dispute

The Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) distanced itself from the brewing dispute between Pasay City lawmakers and executives under the mayor’s office over a proposed P54.5-billion development project on Manila Bay.

On December 4, the council issued Resolution No. 3059 recalling all previous measures it passed in support of a joint venture agreement (JVA) between Mayor Antonino Calixto and SM Land Inc., noting supposed flaws in the bidding procedure pointed out by two other interested bidders, Ayala Land Inc. and S&P Construction Technology.

The city’s Public-Private Partnership Selection Committee, however, maintained that the signed agreement still stands and conveyed this position in a letter sent to the council and the PRA.

But in a letter to Calixto on Dec. 10, PRA general manager Peter Anthony Abaya said the mayor should ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) regarding the city council’s opposition.

“May we state for the record that the PRA is not in a position to conduct a legal review of the Pasay City Council Resolution as this falls under the jurisdiction of either the DILG or the DOJ,” Abaya said.

Abaya also denied the reported statement made by the PPP-SC that the agreement had already been reviewed by the PRA.

“We are taking exceptions to the … statements coming from your PPP-SC and requests that such statements be clarified to all concerned to avoid confusion and the unnecessary involvement of this authority to what is presently an ‘intra-LGU’ (local government unit) issue,” he said.

The city council conducted another hearing on the project on Wednesday, which SMLI and the PPP-SC did not attend.

SMLI only submitted a position paper to council, stressing that the JVA was already a “perfected contract.”