Tom hits city’s ‘insensitivity’ to vendors

CEBU, Philippines —  Former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña has expressed his disappointment over the joint venture agreement entered into by the city government and the Megawide Construction Corporation for the redevelopment of the Carbon Public Market.

Osmeña said he did not like the way the bidding procedures were made and the city’s “insensitivity” to the vendors.

“The issue is that the city has a very dubious policy against the Cebuanos, particularly the small businessmen,” said Osmeña.

“You don’t realize it, but our culture is that the rich can get richer, the poor cannot get rich... The mentality of our leaders, especially even our businessmen, is that who cares if they are small as long as we will make money,” he added.

The former mayor questioned why no public hearing was conducted before the city government signed a contract with MCC. He said the project will only privatize the city’s largest public market, which he said is “not right.”

“What is the concept of a public market? The concept of a public market is precisely to be the opposite of the private market. You don’t need to be a lawyer to know the difference,” said Osmeña.

Osmeña said the project should be thoroughly looked into, and the people should be heard and be given the opportunity to discuss it with the parties involved as it is a big issue affecting the Cebuanos.

The Cebu Market Vendors Multipurpose Cooperative (CEMVEDCO) reportedly called the former mayor and told him that they were not given a chance to be heard.

“What kind of government is this? These are the people, these are the stakeholders, but they cannot attend public hearing because there are too many of them,” said Osmeña.

The former mayor also pointed out the city government’s possible violation of the Philippine Competition Law or R.A. 10667 when it did not give the other interested bidder a fair chance.

Osmeña said the circumstances involving the proposed redevelopment project showed that it is designed not to have competition. R.A. 10667 is the primary competition policy of the Philippines for promoting and protecting competitive market. It will protect the well-being of consumers and preserve the efficiency of competition in the marketplace.

The Cebu CFI Community Cooperative had expressed interest to undertake the project but was allegedly not given the chance by the Joint Venture Selection Committee headed by City Administrator Floro Casas Jr.

“I personally hate Winston Garcia for all kinds of reasons... but I have to go beyond that to see what’s good for Cebu. CFI (Cebu CFI Community Cooperative) is owned by the people. That’s the important thing and, so it’s within their own internal interest to see to it that the small people will be protected,” Osmeña said.

He recalled a Japanese investor who offered to develop the market many years ago but he canceled the project due to the appeal of the people. Osmeña emphasized that the redevelopment may draw in big businesses but it may also leave out small businesses.

Osmeña asked the current administration to “stop pretending” that it merely followed the technicality, saying Cebu CFI Cooperative should have been given a chance.

"I want transparency. Let's stop in pretending on all these technicalities. That's one of the problems in the city with people like (Mayor Edgardo) Labella and Casas," he said, adding that the CFI was treated unfairly.

"I learned that the good way in finding graft and corruption is through a formula. One, monopoly. Two, discretion — you can decide who (to allow to join in the) bidding. Three, there is no transparency. Very hard to participate even if you tendered the required deposit, they will still say no, you did not comply with this and that,” he said.

CFI was not given the chance to participate in the bidding because Casas allegedly refused to furnish the former with the formal instructions to interested private sector participants even as it tendered the required P50,000 deposit.

CFI chairman Winston Garcia first raised their concern on the alleged refusal in a letter dated October 16, 2020 addressed to Casas.

In justifying the snub, JVSC argued that the CFI failed to submit a written notarized Notice of Expression of Interest (EOI) to submit a comparative proposal on or before October 16, 2020. — Mae Fhel K. Gom-os, FPL (FREEMAN)