BSL’S D-DAY

THE Lim administration has finally set the bidding for the controversial sale of MC Adore on December 17, 2012 for a minimum bid of P106,283,000.

The “Notice to Bid,” published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Manila Bulletin on November 28, 29 and 30, 2012 was signed by Mayor Benjamin S. Lim as chairman of the Committee on Awards. He appointed himself as its chairman three weeks ago, replacing City Administrator Vlad Mata.

The notice did not include the sale of the Calasiao land initially intended for a housing project of city hall employees in spite of its inclusion as among the properties to be disposed of by the city.

The invitation to bid titled “Call of Acceptance for the Disposal of the MC Adore Property in Dagupan City invited bids on “an “As-Is-Where-Is” basis “of four (4) parcels of land including buildings named as MC Adore International Palace owned by the City government of Dagupan located in Barangay IV, Dagupan City.”

The deadline set for sealed bids in duplicate is “not later than 9:00 a.m. on December 17, 2012 and publicly opened on the same date.”

The Commission on Audit (COA) in Region 1 earlier changed the proposed P100 million minimum bid price of the city government to P106,283,000.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez had written to COA’s regional office asking for a detailed explanation how it arrived at a measly P106.2-M as minimum price but according to the vice mayor, the COA has not replied to her letter.

Fernandez said earlier appraisal of the property already exceeded P150 million.

So far, no real estate developer or mall operator is known to have publicly expressed interest to acquire the property.

The controversy over the hotel property started when Lim called for a special session of the city council last April 20, 2012 while the vice mayor was away on an official overseas trip.

In that meeting, four members of the original majority, namely Councilors Jesus Canto, Karlos Reyna, Alvin Coquia and Librada Manoais-Reyna joined the minority led by Councilor Brian Lim in unanimously approving the resolution authorizing the mayor to negotiate the sale of the hotel property and the Calasiao lot.

The special session was later deemed irregular by the Department of Interior and Local Government prompting sanggunian secretary Ryan Ravanzo to file a petition for injunction to stop the sale of the hotel property.

The case remains pending at the sala of Regional Trial Court Judge Emma Torio in Dagupan City. Next hearing has been set on January 18, 2013 after two failed hearings at which time the case would already be rendered moot.

City hall observers say there are indications that the fate of the MC Adore will follow the same pattern that saw the leasing of the Magsaysay Park by the Metro State Development Corp. where the mayor has business interests.

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