Gov. Isidro Zayco is asking  the Provincial Engineer’s Office to explain why a contractor has began site development work on the 3-hectare property owned by the Negros Occidental provincial government in Tabunan, Bago City, when bidding for the project worth about P5 million is set to be held on May 8 yet.

Zayco yesterday afternoon said he was not informed that work had began at the site without any bidding conducted until the issue was raised by the media.

A complaint was raised that the contractor, without being awarded the project yet, was already digging up earth-filling material from an adjacent government-owned property for the 3-hectare site development for the jail.

Zayco said P4.7 million is expected to be set for the development of the site where  a new Negros Occidental provincial jail will be built when the provincial government signs a Memorandum of Agreement with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

Under the planned agreement, the province will provide the site and building of  the jail, and its management will be turned over to the BJMP in three years, he said.

The management and costs of running the existing Negros Occidental Provincial Jail in Bacolod City are currently under the provincial jail.

When the provincial government turns over the management of the jail, we will be able to save P25 million in food and maintenance a year, Zayco said.

Zayco yesterday morning said he was told earth filling materials for the jail site was being taken by the contractor from the adjacent property of the provincial government where a fishpond will be built for a tilapia culture project of the Provincial Agriculturist’s Office.

There is no anomaly in getting the filling materials for the jail site from that area, it is even to the benefit of the provincial government that they are helping in the digging of our aquaculture demo farm, he said.

But Zayco yesterday afternoon said he learned that no bidding for the work had been conducted yet and he would have the matter looked into.

Apparently the work began before the bidding was conducted but no payment has been made yet, he said.

The contractor allegedly conducting the work was RA Construction of Francisco Uy but Zayco said the matter would have to be verified with the Provincial Engineer Leoncio Garrucho Jr.

The DAILY STAR tried to reach Garrucho and Uy for comment but they were not available up to press time.

Meanwhile, the claim of the heirs of Domincio Gonzaga of ownership of the property where the current NOPJ stands in Bacolod City is being heard before the Negros Occidental Regional Trial Court.*CPG

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