Senators: Duterte should ask DPWH on bidding process of new Senate building

Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senator Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday said President Rodrigo Duterte should ask the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) about the bidding process for the construction of the new Senate building in Taguig City.

Their statements came after Duterte asked the senators why the construction firm linked to the alleged overpriced Makati City building and Iloilo Convention Center was chosen as the contractor for the new P8.9-billion Senate infrastructure.

“It’s best if he asks the DPWH because we assigned everything to them. Design lang ang sa Senate (We only gave the design),” Sotto told GMA News Online in a Viber message.

Lacson, chair of Senate accounts committee, echoed Sotto’s statements, saying it was the DPWH that conducted the bidding for the construction of the new Senate building.

“President Duterte has been grossly misinformed, hence he barked up the wrong tree. He should have asked his own Department of Public Works and Highways, being the procuring and implementing agency of the project,” he said.

“It was the DPWH that prepared the Program Of Works, the Terms of Reference and all bid documents, conducted the bidding, awarded, prepared the contract, signed the contract, and issued the notice to proceed, including the cost of the building. The Senate representative was only an observer during the bidding process,” he added.

Lacson mentioned that he had even warned the contractor “in the presence of some DPWH officials” against giving SOP’s or bribe and other irregularities, to anyone and in any form, specifically on the construction of the new Senate building after the issuance of the notice of award.

In March 2019, Lacson said Hilmarc Construction Corporation won the bid for constructing the new Senate building inside the 1.8-hectare Navy Village in Taguig City administered by the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA).

A notice of award dated February 12, 2019 and posted on the DPWH website also showed that the design and build contract for the new Senate building was given to Hilmarc for being the “bidder with the single calculated and responsive bid."

The actual construction of the new Senate building started in February 2020.

A Senate probe into the alleged overpriced Makati City Building Parking 2 and Makati City Science Building in 2014 to 2016 revealed that Hilmarc's Construction Corporation was the contractor for the said buildings.—AOL, GMA News