BAGUIO CITY – Councilor Maria Mylen Victoria G. Yaranon lashed back at Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong for the latter’s unfounded allegations that her team of professionals that prepared the architectural plans of some big-ticket projects of the city government are reportedly collecting ten percent as their professional fee for such endeavor.
Yaranon, who chairs the City Council Committee on Public Works, pointed out that it is public knowledge, especially among construction industry stakeholders that the standard professional fee for the team of experts preparing plans and designs of projects is between 10 to 15 percent of the project cost.
However, she stated that as the project cost gets higher, the professional fee of the team of experts goes down reasonably.
Yaranon explained that the professional fee being charged by the team of experts is not solely for the architects but it will also be for the civil, sanitary, mechanical, telecommunication, electrical engineers, among other experts who have direct participation in the preparation of the plans of a small, medium or even large-scale project pursuant to prevailing industry practices already known to individuals and corporations that had been handling such magnitude of projects.
Earlier, Magalong questioned Yaranon and her team of architects for allegedly demanding the payment of their 10 percent professional fee for the preparation of the plans for the market development.
The lady councilor disclosed that it is not only the plans for the market development that her team has the direct participation but it was also in the preparation of the plans for the Burnham Park development.
According to her, no less than the mayor committed to her that whoever will be the winning developer in the proposed multi-billion market development project will be the one to pay for the professional fee of the group that worked on the plans.
In fact, Councilor Yaranon disclosed that the plans being presented by SM Prime Holdings, the company that was issued by the city government with the Original Proponent Status (OPS) for the said project, were mostly culled from the plans that her team earlier prepared for the said project, that it is but proper that the professional fee for this must accrue to their group.
She questioned the motive of Magalong in trying to malign her in public through his speech during the regular flag raising ceremony held at the City Hall grounds when the allegations being hurled against her are of public knowledge, especially by those who are directly involved in the implementation of the same.
“I am willing to face the mayor in whatever forum to answer his obviously malicious allegations against me as it was intentionally done in a public gathering where I was even present. I am saddened that a supposed true gentleman and a professional is going to the extent of humiliating and bullying people just to be able to get what he wants at the expense of the interest of the public,” Yaranon stressed.
She stipulated that there is nothing wrong about being paid the professional fee for works that had been done because it is an industry standard that had been practiced over the past several decades.
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