Contractor, consultant quarrel over unfinished ‘world-class’ market

ILIGAN City ― The contractor and the consultant had a “quarrel” over issues regarding the unfinished market at Palao, this city.

Former councilor Roy Openiano, who is one of the key figures in the transition team of mayor Frederick Siao, yesterday told residents on the air here that in a meeting of the team with the contractor together with the consultant on a said city project, the former, when asked about the schedule of completion of said market, the BM Marketing said that it would be by the end of November this year.

This then was opposed by the consultant, Mori, a Japanese firm with an office in Makati City, Openiano said. The latter, Openiano revealed, said that it should be “by the end of this month of July.” The contractor then said, still per Openiano’s reveal, that “they don’t have an office in the city” obviously taking a dig at said consultant company that they as a contractor should know better.

The consultant, it was learned paid P17 million for this project which has a total cost of P492 million undertaken by the then administration under city mayor Celso G. Regencia which was touted then as a project being undertaken “without any loans involved.”

This began, in February 2020 yet and was scheduled to be finished by December 31, 2021. The completion date was then moved to March 31, and then to April 30, 2022. Reasons being given by said past administration was “because of Covid” as some workers there contracted Covid.

Openiano then also pointed out that the city too is paying for 11 engineers and the present administration of Mayor Frederick Siao is questioning why this is so when things like these should now be “under the contractor.”

The former councilor then said that with this development, “the contractor should be penalized” for these various delays. He added that at present, there are “only a few men working on the said project.”

Earlier too, Engr. Teodoro Gayo, a city resident when questioned about the said project, told media that per his assessment earlier this year in April said that “it will take one and a half years” for the said market to be finished as the escalator “has to be purchased yet” even as he added too that there’s still the matter of floor tiles that have to be done.

A look at the site by a team of reporters too revealed that some areas in the fence enclosing the market which is colored red, which is the color of the past administration, had some vines climbing over these enclosures.

This particular project is among the “problematic things” that the city has to deal with and needs a lot of studying as to how to go about it, the former councilor said. Especially, he added that the cost of materials has considerably increased at this time.