BAGUIO CITY August 24 – The City Council scheduled a public hearing on September 7, 2016 to gather inputs from the public on the proposal to cancel the contract between the City government and Uniwide Sales Realty and Resources Development Corporation which was declared valid and constitutional by the Supreme Court (SC) recently.
The local legislative body decided to allow the conduct of the public hearing to be undertaken by the Committee on Laws to give all parties, particularly Uniwide officials, the chance to inform the public of their capacity to pursue the development of the public market amidst the final decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) ordering a Parañaque-based Regional Trial Court (RTC) to facilitate the liquidation of the company.
The councilors are giving a final chance for Uniwide officials to appear before them in a bid to ascertain its liquidity and capacity to implement the market development project, even as a group of market vendors insists that the company is no longer capable of implementing the project because the contract is considered to have been automatically rescinded with the dissolution of the company after the supposed liquidation.
It shall be recalled that no less than the City Council passed Resolution No. 056, series of 2016 requesting Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan to create a review committee to review the market development contract entered into between the City Government and Uniwide, and to ascertain the capacity of the company to pursue the development project.
Mayor Domogan then issued Administrative Order No. 82-A that created the review committee chaired by the City Budget Officer with the Chairman of the City Council Committee on Market, Trade and Commerce, the City Building Official, the City Engineer, the City Treasurer, the City Planning and Development Officer, and two qualified officials of the market vendors as members.
The review committee was given at least 60 days to produce its findings and recommendations relative to the market development project to inform the city’s leadership.
In August 1996, Uniwide entered into an agreement with the City Government for the development of the city’s public market after the Bids and Awards Committee declared it as the winning bidder.
However, a group of market vendors filed a case before the RTC that questioned the constitutionality of Ordinance No. 038, series of 1995 that prescribed the rules and regulations for the development of the public market and the validity of the contract.
The RTC then ruled in favor of the city that forced the vendors to appeal the lower court’s decision to the CA where they again lost before elevating the matter to the SC where their arguments against the ordinance and the contract were struck down twice making the local legislative measure containing the rules for the market development and the development contract valid and binding.**By Dexter A. See
