Robinsons, SM offer to develop Baguio market

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – Robinsons Land Corporation and SM Prime Holdings Inc., two of the country’s leading real estate development companies, formally tendered their offers for the master redevelopment plan of the city market.

City officials led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong and Faustino Olowan witnessed the presentations of the general plans done for Robinsons by Bambie Andal last Feb. 14 and by Vice Pesident for Legal Ryan San Juan for SM last Feb. 17.

The mayor said the offers received will be evaluated by the city's Public-Private Partnership for the Public-Private Partnership for the People (P4) selection committee subject to PPP rules.

He emphasized that the city intends to speed up the process without resorting to shortcuts in the established procedures to ensure that only the best offer will be selected at the shortest time possible. 

He also reiterated that he will not tolerate bribery or ‘lagay’ system in the selection of projects.

According to the mayor, two more big companies have served intention to present proposals in the coming days for the multi-billion project aimed to modernize the public market supposedly the city’s show window.

The mayor said the city’s topmost consideration in the deal will be the interest of the existing vendors as he assured that the vendors’ cooperative will not be left out in the in PPP joint venture whichever company will be chosen.

  Recently a redevelopment plan was presented by the Technical Working Group headed by Coun. Mylen Yaranon, the architectural design of which was approved by the city council through Resolution No. 39-2020.

The said design was for a seven-storey structure including two underground floors to house the vendors with provisions for parking, sewage treatment plant, materials recovery facility and open space comprising 30 percent of the area for alleys and parks.

The city’s trading area should have been developed back in 1995 but the design-build-lease contract forged by the city government with the Uniwide Sales Realty And Resources Corporation was halted and held hostage for more than 20 years by lawsuits filed by opposing vendors’ groups.

Although the city and Uniwide won the cases, the project failed to take off due to Uniwide’s ensuing insolvency problem. 

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The city government through the City Health Services Office will engage the private sector in expanding its health system in line with the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act.

CHS Officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said the UHC law includes a component on the Health Care Provider Network that enables local government unit to partner with private groups or companies on various health care ventures.

Under the UHC law, the network may be “a group of primary to tertiary care providers, whether public or private, offering people-centered and comprehensive care in an integrated and coordinated manner with the primary care provider acting as the navigator and coordinator of health care within the network.”

Galpo said the joint venture may be on diagnostics that include laboratory procedures such as x-ray and ultrasound; consultancy or medical service delivery of health professionals; and pharmacies to ensure that medicines are available and affordable.

This is in consonance with the provision of the UHC Act to make health system citywide and province-wide in contract to the present set-up where health centers are under the management of the municipalities or in case of the city, the barangays.

Galpo said the city’s Local Health Board has begun discussing ground preparations for the law’s implementation in the city with the Department of Health, Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, PhilHealth, Baguio-Benguet Medical Society and other concerned government and private sector institutions.

Among the plans initially considered in the board meeting was the public-private partnerships to serve health centers in the city apart from the additional guidelines to emanate from the DOH, possible expansion of membership, the local investment plan for health and annual operational plan, referral system with BGHMC and the strengthening of primary care providers.

Last Feb. 17, city officials led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong and Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan received an unsolicited proposal from one private health care company offering a tie-up with the city government on the provision of diagnostic equipment and facilities for the city health office and health centers.

The proposal will be reviewed by the concerned offices.