Talks on market development completed by January 15

The ongoing negotiations between the members of the city’s Public Private Partnership for the People – Selection Committee (P4-SC) and their counterparts from SM Prime Holdings on the proposed P6 billion development of the public market might be completed by the middle of January next year.

City Administrator Bonifacio dela Pena, P4-SC chairman, claimed that both parties are about to commence their discussions and agreements on the technical terms while the deliberations on the financial terms will immediately follow so that the final terms of reference of the project will already be finalized.

However, he claimed that what is being awaited from the proponent is the result of its traffic impact assessment which is expected to be submitted for deliberation by the committee by December 9, 2021 so that the parties could already start discussing the issues and concerns on the financial terms. 

Earlier, the P4-SC decided to extend the ongoing negotiations with the market development project proponent for another 45 days to ensure that all the 34-pint technical and financial terms presented by the city as talking points will be given utmost attention and for both parties to agree on the same.

The city administrator stipulated that while the parties were deliberating on the technical terms, the financial matters were also being discussed by those responsible for the same although there is still a need to complete the talks on the technical terms as it will serve as a basis for the financial experts to discuss the financial terms of the multi-billion project.

According to him, the ongoing negotiations can still be extended depending on the duration that will be required by both parties to deliberate the 34-point technical and financial terms of the proposed market development project which will be subjected to the public private partnership scheme enshrined in the city’s P4 ordinance.

Dela Pena stipulated that after the completion of the ongoing negotiations, the final terms of reference for the project will be crafted which will be the one that will be offered for the much awaited Swiss Challenge where interested developers will try to present a more superior proposal competed to the one that had been given by the local government the Original Proponent Status (OPS) for the realization of the proposed development of the city’s public market.

SM Prime Holdings was given by the P4-SC the OPS for the proposed development of the city public market for the realization of one of the present administration’s agenda which is the modernization of the said facility.

Two Manila-based companies were able to submit their unsolicited proposals for the proposed development of the city public market which was earlier evaluated by the P4-SC on their compliance to the terms of the project. Initially, the OPS was given to Robinsons Land Corporation but the same was subsequently reversed by a committee that was organized to assess and evaluate the compliance of the company to the terms of the project.

The city had been envisioning the development of the public market as early as 1995 but the same was stalled by the opposition of the various groups of market vendors who filed cases to derail the said endeavor. – Dexter A. See