Bacolod Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson yesterday said the Mayor will create a committee that will handle the pre-takeover preparations after the ordinance involving the management and operation of the port at the reclamation area in Bacolod City takes effect.

The “takeover ordinance” was submitted to the City Mayor's Office Tuesday and Mayor Evelio Leonardia has 10 days to act on it – whether to sign it, veto or allow it to lapse into law. He also forwarded it to City Legal Officer Allan Zamora for study on the same day.

Sayson said that if the Mayor signs the “takeover ordinance”, he is obliged to form a committee that will undertake the leg work for the preparation for the takeover of the port operation and management, and the remaining reclamation project. After the process has been completed, he said, the city will rebid the port to interested private contractors who are willing to pay a reasonable amount of rent to the city.

The Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. that operates the port is currently paying the city an annual rental of only P800,000.

Sayson said that during the renegotiation, the city offered BREDCO an annual rental of P17 million which was negotiable, but BREDCO made a counter-offer of only P1.4 million saying, “take it or leave it.”

The ordinance states that the negotiation process undertaken by the city is part of due process given to BREDCO to defend, explain or address or remedy its violations.

It added that, in view of the present problems being experienced by the city in relation to the project and the port and port operations, there is a need for the city to undertake the necessary measures to protect its rights, including its ownership over the reclamation project, port and port operations at the reclamation area.

Roselier Maalat, one of the lawyers of BREDCO, reiterated that they will file a complaint for the declaration of nullity of the ordinance with damages and prayer for temporary restraining order as soon as the ordinance has been approved by the Mayor and becomes effective.

Maalat said the ordinance is in violation of the Constitution and is an impairment of the contract between the city and BREDCO.

He said the city should first declare the contract null and void before entering into a contract with another party, Maalat said.*CGS

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