Public urged to give market development process to proceed

The city wants the public to give a chance for the ongoing negotiation process between the local government and the private proponent for the public market development to proceed and for the project to be realized.

Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong stated that he is on top of the situation and when he sees that the proposed development of the public market will not do good for the city, then will call off the same.

However, the local chief executive claimed that at the way things are going in the negotiation process, there is no compelling reason for him to forego the project, thus, the need for the public to understand his decision to allow the process to proceed admits the opposition from some city officials and concerned stakeholders in the public market.

At present, the members of the city’s Public-Private Partnership for the People – Selection Committee (P4-SC) are now negotiating with their counterparts from SM Prime Holdings, which was earlier given the Original Proponent Status (OPS) for the said project, for the crafting of the final terms of reference of the proposed public market development.

Under the city’s P4 ordinance which prescribed the guidelines in the implementation of the public-private partnership scheme, there are 19 steps that shall be undertaken by the P3-SC prior to the determination of the private partner that will implement the desired project that will be undertaken through the said mode.

After the final terms of reference of the project shall had been crafted, the same shall be subjected to the Swiss Challenge where other interested developers will be given a chance to submit a much superior proposal compared to the one presented by the company that was given the OPS for evaluation and assessment by the P4-SC and for the determination to which among the company that was given the OPS and those that participated in the said process will the project be awarded.

Earlier, the city was able to come out with some 34 terms which is now the subject of the ongoing negotiations with the negotiation team from SM Prime Holdings for both parties to agree on the final terms that will be published and will be the subject of the Swiss Challenge.

Based on the initial plans of the project, the winning proponent will be constructing a 5-story structure with 2 levels of basement parking within the 3-hectare area that had been identified by the city as the site where the public market will be constructed. The first 2 floors of the structure will be owned and managed by the local government while the remaining floors and basement parking will be managed and operated by the selected developer.

The 34 terms that had been previously identified by the city are the more contentious provisions of the terms of reference that need to be agreed upon by both parties before the same will be offered for other proponents that had signified their intention to participate in the Seiss challenge that could probably happen anytime soon.

The P4-SC awarded the OPS to SM Prime Holdings upon the recommendation of a technical committee that was created to study the previous findings of the committee on the proposals of the 2 proponents that signified their intention to participate in the public-private partnership process pursuant to the city’s P4 ordinance. – Dexter A. See