CDC sleeps on the job, so what else is new?
“NATUTULOG SA pansitan.” This time, not simply napping but snoring in the noodle house is the Clark Development Corp.
Bannered here last Wednesday was: CDC won’t pay PNCC,
firm for Sacobia Bridge with the sub-head Defies orders from Office of the President, OGCC.
First, the facts of the case for background, as laid down in the Punto story:
On Feb. 14, 1997, the PNCC (Philippine National Construction Corp.) and the CDC entered into a memorandum of agreement and later on a supplemental agreement dated Feb. 28, 1997 for the pre-design, design and construction of a 910-meter, 3-lane bridge called the Sacobia Bridge with the maximum contract price of P700 million “subject to price adjustments on the variation orders/bills of quantities ‘following the applicable provisions of PD 1594 and its implementing rules and regulations as amended.”
On Aug. 8, 1997, the PNCC engaged the services of Ciriaco as its sub-contractor for the project. Ciriaco was one of the pre-qualified contractors that CDC endorsed to PNCC
The PNCC prescribed a period of completion 360 calendar days from the “notice to proceed” dated July 5, 1997.
CDC reportedly requested Ciriaco to provide an interim financing of P250 million to jumpstart the project to give the stet firm the time for find a funding source.
The PNCC and Ciriaco alleged in their petition that despite the difficult time in finding interim financing for the project as its start coincided with the devaluation spurred by the Asian financial crisis, it did so with the assurance that the CDC board was “fully cognizant of the Asian currency crisis, (and) is amenable to an adjustment of the Sacobia Bridge Project contract price.”
The completed project was turned over to the CDC on June 10, 1998, well within its projected date of completion.
All of 12 years since the turnover of the bridge to the CDC, the constructors have yet to be fully paid. A petition therefore was filed with the Office of Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) which formed an arbitration panel to resolve the issue of payment.
Documents gathered by Punto showed that both the OGCC and the very Office of the President (OP) with the affirmation of the Department of Justice have ordered the CDC to pay the PNCC and Ciriaco “the judgment award in the decision dated 18 Dec. 2008” which covered: P1,739,526.79, representing the unpaid Progress Billing No. 8; P15,953,264.90, representing the unpaid Final Billing; P153,011,677.60, representing the foreign currency price adjustment; and legal interest on the afore-mentioned amounts at the rate of 6 percent per annum from the time of the filing of this petition or from Nov. 7, 2006, until finality of the judgment and 12 percent thereafter until full satisfaction.”
Instead of heeding the order of the OGCC and the OP, the CDC on Feb. 3, 2010 filed a “petition for review on certiorari before the Court of Appeals docketed as CA-GR SP No. 112732.
The height of insolence there, the CDC thrusting an in-your-face finger on the President herself! Ain’t the CDC technically under the OP?
An April 7, 2010 decision of the OGCC Arbitration Panel however noted that: “There being no restraining order issued by the Honorable Court of Appeals in the Petition for Review on Certiorari entitled “Clark Development Corp. vs. Philippine National Construction Corp. joined by Ciriaco Corp,”…with respondent itself not even praying for the issuance thereof, the execution of the subject Decision is in order.”
Lousy lawyering there, our favorite solicitor Attorney Dimaunahan noted. “Nag-certiorari na nga, hindi pa humingi ng TRO.” Thus, the “legality” and the executory nature of the order stayed.
The headlines of the story may have given the reader a picture of an insolent CDC. But the truth of the matter is more of a CDC rendered clueless by sleeping on its job now glossing over its faults by a display of defiance.
Consider the premises that served the bases for the arbitration panel’s favorable decision to the petition: the CDC “failed to present its evidence during the hearings set on 20 August 2008, 3 September 2008 and 20 October 2008…”
“CDC’s counsel even failed to appear or send representative during those hearings…In an order dated 3 September 2008, the Arbitration Panel granted for the last time CDC’s motion for the resetting of the case, with a warning that in the event it failed to present its evidence on the next scheduled hearing (on 20 Oct. 2008), respondent’s right to present evidence shall be considered waived and the case shall be deemed submitted for decision based on the pleadings submitted by the parties…Notwithstanding the peremptory warning from this Panel, respondent CDC’s counsel still failed to file the affidavit of its witnesses and to appear on the October 2008 setting,”
Soundly asleep in the noodle house – perhaps over platefuls of luglug and guisado, the CDC lost track of time and place, losing to PNCC and Ciriaco by default.
Yeah, the chow mein loving Rip Van Winkle lives, er, sleeps, in the CDC.
Hoy gising! Mahiya naman kayo!
Bannered here last Wednesday was: CDC won’t pay PNCC,
firm for Sacobia Bridge with the sub-head Defies orders from Office of the President, OGCC.
First, the facts of the case for background, as laid down in the Punto story:
On Feb. 14, 1997, the PNCC (Philippine National Construction Corp.) and the CDC entered into a memorandum of agreement and later on a supplemental agreement dated Feb. 28, 1997 for the pre-design, design and construction of a 910-meter, 3-lane bridge called the Sacobia Bridge with the maximum contract price of P700 million “subject to price adjustments on the variation orders/bills of quantities ‘following the applicable provisions of PD 1594 and its implementing rules and regulations as amended.”
On Aug. 8, 1997, the PNCC engaged the services of Ciriaco as its sub-contractor for the project. Ciriaco was one of the pre-qualified contractors that CDC endorsed to PNCC
The PNCC prescribed a period of completion 360 calendar days from the “notice to proceed” dated July 5, 1997.
CDC reportedly requested Ciriaco to provide an interim financing of P250 million to jumpstart the project to give the stet firm the time for find a funding source.
The PNCC and Ciriaco alleged in their petition that despite the difficult time in finding interim financing for the project as its start coincided with the devaluation spurred by the Asian financial crisis, it did so with the assurance that the CDC board was “fully cognizant of the Asian currency crisis, (and) is amenable to an adjustment of the Sacobia Bridge Project contract price.”
The completed project was turned over to the CDC on June 10, 1998, well within its projected date of completion.
All of 12 years since the turnover of the bridge to the CDC, the constructors have yet to be fully paid. A petition therefore was filed with the Office of Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) which formed an arbitration panel to resolve the issue of payment.
Documents gathered by Punto showed that both the OGCC and the very Office of the President (OP) with the affirmation of the Department of Justice have ordered the CDC to pay the PNCC and Ciriaco “the judgment award in the decision dated 18 Dec. 2008” which covered: P1,739,526.79, representing the unpaid Progress Billing No. 8; P15,953,264.90, representing the unpaid Final Billing; P153,011,677.60, representing the foreign currency price adjustment; and legal interest on the afore-mentioned amounts at the rate of 6 percent per annum from the time of the filing of this petition or from Nov. 7, 2006, until finality of the judgment and 12 percent thereafter until full satisfaction.”
Instead of heeding the order of the OGCC and the OP, the CDC on Feb. 3, 2010 filed a “petition for review on certiorari before the Court of Appeals docketed as CA-GR SP No. 112732.
The height of insolence there, the CDC thrusting an in-your-face finger on the President herself! Ain’t the CDC technically under the OP?
An April 7, 2010 decision of the OGCC Arbitration Panel however noted that: “There being no restraining order issued by the Honorable Court of Appeals in the Petition for Review on Certiorari entitled “Clark Development Corp. vs. Philippine National Construction Corp. joined by Ciriaco Corp,”…with respondent itself not even praying for the issuance thereof, the execution of the subject Decision is in order.”
Lousy lawyering there, our favorite solicitor Attorney Dimaunahan noted. “Nag-certiorari na nga, hindi pa humingi ng TRO.” Thus, the “legality” and the executory nature of the order stayed.
The headlines of the story may have given the reader a picture of an insolent CDC. But the truth of the matter is more of a CDC rendered clueless by sleeping on its job now glossing over its faults by a display of defiance.
Consider the premises that served the bases for the arbitration panel’s favorable decision to the petition: the CDC “failed to present its evidence during the hearings set on 20 August 2008, 3 September 2008 and 20 October 2008…”
“CDC’s counsel even failed to appear or send representative during those hearings…In an order dated 3 September 2008, the Arbitration Panel granted for the last time CDC’s motion for the resetting of the case, with a warning that in the event it failed to present its evidence on the next scheduled hearing (on 20 Oct. 2008), respondent’s right to present evidence shall be considered waived and the case shall be deemed submitted for decision based on the pleadings submitted by the parties…Notwithstanding the peremptory warning from this Panel, respondent CDC’s counsel still failed to file the affidavit of its witnesses and to appear on the October 2008 setting,”
Soundly asleep in the noodle house – perhaps over platefuls of luglug and guisado, the CDC lost track of time and place, losing to PNCC and Ciriaco by default.
Yeah, the chow mein loving Rip Van Winkle lives, er, sleeps, in the CDC.
Hoy gising! Mahiya naman kayo!
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 12:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home