THE government has moved the groundbreaking date for rebuilding war-ravaged Marawi City from July to August following its “unsuccessful negotiation” with China-led Bagong Marawi Consortium.
Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) Chairman Eduardo D. del Rosario announced in a briefing on Thursday the consortium composed of Chinese and Filipino firms failed to comply with financial, technical and legal requirements.
Although the groundbreaking date has been reset to either the third or fourth week of August, del Rosario said he is “still optimistic” the Task Force will still meet its target date of completion, which is the last quarter of 2021.
“Well, unfortunately we could not meet that indicative time line because we had unsuccessful negotiation with [the] Bagong Marawi Consortium,” he said. “And now, we are on the process of negotiating with the next developer, which is PowerChina.”
TFBM Secretary-General Undersecretary Falconi V. Millar said they have requested Power Construction Corp. (PowerChina) to submit technical proposals.
However, Millar said PowerChina requested for a four-day extension so that its staff could go to Marawi to be able to come up with an “intelligent” proposal.
“With regard to legal submissions, we are engaging them [and] they have been represented by a counsel,” he added. “So we are still negotiating with PowerChina with regards to the modality of our joint-venture agreement.”
A deal with PowerChina, however, will be subjected to a Swiss challenge and all interested proponents may participate in the Swiss challenge, Millar explained.
Asked which local company will be partnering with PowerChina, del Rosario said they are still waiting for that agreement with that local company, which is expected to be submitted within the week.