BAGUIO CITY – The city government is exploring the possibility that it be part of the accepting party on the rehabilitation of the city-owned Baguio Convention Center (BCC) as the end-user, and not only the Department of Public Works and Highways as implementing agency, once the contractor shall have completed the remaining works by the end of this year or early next year.
City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña underscored the plans and specifications of the rehabilitation of the city-owned convention facility were not the ones that were submitted by the technical working group (TWG) created by the city government for the said purpose thus it is best for the city to be part of the party that will formally accept the completed project to ensure that all the programmed works have been accomplished by the contractor.
He disclosed that after the city government used the convention facility for the 110th Baguio Charter Day main program last September 1, 2019, the same was closed to allow the contractor to complete all unimplemented works inside the structure for it to be opened by the 4th week of the month for conduct of the activities lined up for the Search for Miss Baguio 2019 and the general assembly of the Baguio Tourism Council..
“We call on the individuals and groups wanting to use the Baguio Convention Center to look for other venues because the city-owned convention center will not yet be ready until December as the contractor has to complete the remaining works inside and outside the structure,” dela Peña stressed.
The city administrator admitted there had been numerous comments on the state of the convention center when it was first opened to the public during the Baguio Charter Day program, especially the kind of seats that was installed, thus, the need for the city government to be included as accepting party of the completed works to ensure the quality of work of the whole facility once it is turned over to the city after the completion of the programmed rehabilitation.
According to him, it is important for the city government’s technical personnel to be actively involved in the monitoring of the ongoing rehabilitation works of the facility so that appropriate corrective measures could immediately instituted on defects so as not to waste public funds.
The rehabilitation of the city-owned Baguio Convention Center cost the public works department P180 million under the 2018 national budget to undergo a significant facelift starting March 2018 and was supposed to have been completed by February this year.
However, the unnecessary delays and suspension of works due to numerous issues that were traced to the misunderstanding between the technical personnel of the local government and the DPWH-CAR caused the implementation of the multi-million project to drag on to date and until December this year depending on the compliance of the contractor to the remaining programmed works./Dexter A. See
