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BWD opens lone bidder’s last envelopes

Despite consumer protests

BAGUIO CITY (Jan. 14) —The reconstituted Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of the Baguio Water District (BWD) opened envelopes C1 and C2 of the Benguet Corporation (BC), the only remaining pre-qualified bidder for the Bulk Water Supply Project.

Envelope C1 contained BC’s security bond amounting to P18,250,000 while envelope C2 had the bid price at P39.99 per cubic meter. These are the last requirements of the bidding before the contract is signed.

This, despite a picket coupled with a noise barrage from members of the Pro-CONSUMERS Movement who also staged a mini-rally in front of the BWD offices where the BAC opened the envelopes.

Pro-CONSUMERS said that the opening of the last envelopes is an attempt to do away with the controversies surrounding envelope B and the entire project. Earlier, the group appealed that the bidding process be stopped and urged BWD to review the basis for the bulk water supply project. It reiterated earlier findings that there are wells within the city that could provide the needed water for Baguio residents.

“Di natin kailangan ang maruming tubig ng BC! Malaking pasanin sa panig ng mamamayan ang bulk water at magdudulot ito ng mas malala sa meningococcemia ang haharapin ng mamamayan dahil sa tubig na manggagaling sa BC,” (We do not need dirty water from BC! People will bear a greater burden than meningococcemia due to water from BC) Chie Galvez, Tontongan ti Umili (TTU-CPA) secretary-general and Pro-CONSUMERS spokesperson said.

Itogon Inter-barangay Alliance (IIB-A) representative Norma Mooy said that BC’s envelopes C1 and C2 should not have been opened because the earlier PBAC rejected its earlier requirements. BC earlier posed a P7.3 million-protest fee for the bidding processes to push through after the BWD found that its water sources are not enough, its water is contaminated and its proposed reservoir is wanting in capacity.

Itogon folk are wary that the bulk water supply project will deprive them of the utilization of water, which they need in farms and mine ore processing. They are equally apprehensive that this will displace some of them from their places of abode and livelihood sources.

To date, there are more or less 1,000 small-scale miners in the L-070 open pit site, which will be the site of the reservoir for the bulk water project. Many small scale miners in Brgys. Ucab, and Loacan around Antamok are also facing eviction once the company starts to fence off the area from mining activities. Mining effluents, not to mention domestic wastes, from these areas naturally flow into the Antamok open pit site that is geographically lower.

A day before the opening of the last envelopes, Baguio Mayor Braulio Yaranon told media that the city does not need the bulk water supply project if only the BWD makes good in its efforts to rehabilitate the old wells and drill new ones. According to Yaranon, the bulk water supply project is facing difficulties as he notes that the biggest stumbling block is that no community would allow their water to be taken out for the city’s use.

Opening the envelopes doesn’t necessarily mean approving the contract,” Yaranon was qouted by the Baguio media as saying in his weekly Mayor’s Forum.

As these developed, the new chairperson of the BWD Board of Directors, Atty. Antonio Espiritu assured Pro-CONSUMERS shortly after the opening of the envelopes that BWD will not take BC water if it is going to be dirty. He also said that the BWD would not go through privatization.

Geraldine Cacho of the Organisasyon dagiti Nakurapay nga Umili ti Syudad (ORNUS), reminded Espiritu that BC which is bidding to provide water is a private entity. She said that consumers will have to put up with more expensive water rates once BC starts its bulk water supply project.

The BWD sells at P24 per cubic meter while water delivery trucks sell at P110 to P120 per cubic meter. A public hearing will determine the new rates when BC gets the contract, a BWD insider told the media. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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