BAGUIO CITY – Concerned offices of the city government will be presenting the proposed terms of reference for the city’s big-ticket projects to the city officials for critiquing prior to the submission of the same to the city legislative body for scrutiny.
Initially, the terms of reference for the city’s proposed P200 million integrated command center and the manual of operations of the city-owned Baguio Convention Center were presented in part to the concerned city government officials during Monday’s executive-legislative meeting, while the terms of reference for the proposed re-development of the city’s public market, development of Burnham Park and barangay lighting project will be presented to the city officials in a similar forum next week.
The city government is fastracking the completion of the terms of reference for its big ticket projects to ensure their timely submission to the City Council for possible approval the soonest so that the city will be able to start the implementation of the programmed projects towards achieving the present administration’s 15-point agenda.
Earlier, the city government embarked on 15-point collective agenda geared towards improving the city’s state of the environment and realizing a better Baguio within 3 years.
Currently, the city is still accepting proposals from prospective proponents for the development of the city’s public market as it is still ascertaining the best option on how to undertake the P6 billion project, whether through the acquisition of loans from financial institutions, embrace a turnkey proposal, enter into a joint venture partnership with a prospective developer, and/or tap the existing market cooperatives for the realization of the project.
In the case of Burnham Park, the city government is simply awaiting the downloading of the P480 million funds earlier approved by the State-owned Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) so it can proceed with the bidding of the project with the use of the terms of reference that will be presented next week.
For the city’s barangay lighting project, the city government is inclined to bid out the initial purchase of the 1,000 Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs costing approximately P18 million while the remaining over 7,000 bulbs will be subjected to public-private partnership as the city sought a manufacturer that will provide the supply of bulbs and maintain the same for 5 years, a partnership considered as advantageous to the city.
After the lapse of the 5-year period, the city government can opt to enter into a license contract with the supplier for the continuous maintenance of the streetlights to ensure the illumination of the city’s barangays.
City officials expect to break ground the implementation of its programmed big ticket projects before the end of the first semester of this year to ensure that most of the development interventions will be completed within the present term and thus achieve its overall objective of establishing a better Baguio.
B Dexter A. See