SM Gets Baguio Public Market Upgrade

October 18, 2020 Headlines

BAGUIO CITY (October 16, 2020) – SM Prime Holdings Inc. has gotten the nod to develop the Baguio public market.
In a memorandum signed by Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong on October 14, the Certificate of Acceptance to rehabilitate Baguio Market was awarded to SM, while Robinson Land Corporation’s proposal was disapproved and rejected because it accordingly lacked required documents.
According to the P4-SC Memorandum No. 1-2020, the Office of the City Mayor compared the Unsolicited Proposals of both Robinson Land Corporation and SM Prime Holdings in terms of completeness of documents, lot area to be developed, modality, project duration, financial viability, technical designs, economic benefits and environmental consideration.
All of which favored SM Prime Holdings’ proposal stating that the company’s proposal provides “greater advantage and benefits to the city,” compared to Robinson which failed to complete its proposal. The wherefore clause of the memorandum stated that, “This Office finds the Unsolicited Proposal of SM Prime Holdings more complete and therefore, more beneficial by the (P4-SC).
He added that there is no issue that Robinsons submitted complete formal requirements namely, cover letter, eligibility documents, pre-feasibility or project study and draft contract, but based on the technical study of the P4-SC technical sub-committee, the unsolicited proposal of the company does not include the technical design, demand for casting, and operational analysis that finds support in the P4-SC letter dated May 20, 2020 through its chair, City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña, requesting from Robinsons submission of details as to perspective, site development plan, floor plans and evaluation plans and financial assumptions.
In the spirit of fair play, the mayor stated that he sent a letter dated September 14, 2020to RLC, requesting the proponent to submit additional documents, to ascertain that the proposal to develop the city market provides greater advantage and benefits to the community and revenue to the city.
But in the reply letter of RLC dated September 22, 2020 to the mayor, the company insisted not to submit the floor plans and evaluation plans which should have been part of the technical plans until and unless RLC is declared as the original proponent of the project.
Aside from being one of the documents required as part of the technical plans and evaluation plans, he pointed out that the same are vital in qualifying the advantage and benefits to be derived from the proposal and without the given documents, there is no baseline to be used as basis for a realistic estimation for the determination of the greater advantage and benefits to the community and the revenues to the city.
According to him, there might have been an oversight not only in the evaluation that the proposal of RLC is complete but also in the determination that its proposal provides greater advantage and benefits to the community and revenues to the city.
He also disagreed to the findings and recommendations of the P4-SC that the substance of RLC’s proposal will only be extensively evaluated at a latter time. “Perfection is not within the purview of the P4-SC, however, this office, as the approving authority, must exercise with great car and caution, the power to acquire an original proponent status to a certain proponent. Although an original proponent status does not automatically carry with it the award of the project, the grant is not trivial or of little importance as the original proponent shall gain advantage by a right to match,” Magalong quipped.
The city mayor asserted that RLC did not submit all the documents required, making its proposal incomplete, thus, it cannot be reasonably ascertained that its proposal provides the greater advantage and benefits to the community and revenues to the city than the proposal of SM.
On the other hand, Magalong claimed that the proposal of SM Prime holdings is susceptible to quantification for the city to ascertain the advantages and benefits to the community and revenues to the city. One of the present administration’s 15-point collective agenda is for the modernization of the city public market for the city to play host to one of the most modern markets in Southeast Asia.
Dexter A. See/ABN