A local contractor has challenged Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto to disclose all the details of the contract signed with the company that won the bid to construct the new Pasig City Hall building worth P9.6 billion.

Selwyn Lao, a structural engineer and owner of a construction firm based in Pasig, raised concerns over the transparency of the bidding process for the proposed new city hall.

He urged the city government to release key documents, including the contract, recommendations and findings of the consultant hired to conduct a structural analysis of the current Pasig City Hall building.

“How can they claim to be transparent when they still won’t release their documents?” Lao told the DAILY TRIBUNE in an interview on Saturday.

“First, they should release the contract with that company. Second, they should release the results and recommendation of that company,” he said.

Lao also cast doubt on the feasibility study carried out by the city.

“In short, that was an unsolicited proposal. That’s not a project initiated by Pasig City Hall because I don’t think they have the capacity to conduct feasibility or project studies for something as large as P9.6 billion,” he said.

“All of Mayor Vico Sotto’s people involved in this project should first show their credentials and prove that they have the authority and capacity to design a building of this scale. A P9.6 billion project is considered quadruple-A. This is likely a consortium,” Lao added.

Claiming decades of experience in construction, Lao said he knows how these procedures are handled.

“Mayor Vico only has to say one thing, and I’ll understand everything. But I’ll just ask one thing from him: release the findings and recommendations of the consultant on the old city hall,” he said.

Lao said that based on consultations with peers in the construction industry, the recommended approach was to retrofit the old city hall.

According to him, the old city hall consists of two connected structures — a smaller building in front and a larger one at the back.

“That front building really tilted a bit, which means there was some settlement in its foundation,” Lao said.

“The cause of the tilting was the fault of their city engineer. They dug and designed a detention tank without knowing how to do it. That was during Eusebio’s term. Then their detention tank collapsed, causing cracks in both the old and new buildings — that’s when the panic started,” he added.

Lao said he knew this because he was the one who designed and built the detention tank, which was later relocated to the Rainforest.

“They panicked when their detention tank collapsed. They stopped the work, buried it again, and moved it to the Rainforest,” he said.

As a structural engineer, Lao said Sotto could have consulted the Department of Public Works and Highways about retrofitting options.

“This is what I’ve been saying — it’s not really necessary to demolish the entire Pasig City Hall just because it tilted slightly. It can still be retrofitted. There are many techniques available. So you don’t need to spend P9.6 billion,” Lao said.

He also questioned the timing of the new city hall project.

“I smell something here. I’m sure they timed this project for the elections. I saw the amount — P9.6 billion — it clearly aligns with their plans. It seems like they want to make Mayor Vico either a vice-presidential or senatorial candidate,” he said.

Lao said the project is “too expensive.”

“If they ask why it costs P9.6 billion, I’m willing to stake P5 billion. I’ll put up my van as a guarantee. If I can’t finish the building for P5 billion, they can confiscate my van and even put me in jail. I’m willing,” he said.

Lao insisted that the city government should have implemented a proper Swiss Challenge to allow other firms to propose more competitive bids for the same project.

“This city hall project shouldn’t have gone through regular bidding. It should’ve been a Swiss Challenge, because the proposal came from MTD. That’s what you call an unsolicited proposal,” he said.

“There’s already an anomaly in the so-called bidding process. It’s nonsense, because no contractor would be able to bid properly if you withhold a lot of information. I’m a contractor — if you hide information from me, what if I make a mistake?” he added.

Lao has repeatedly criticized the process, which started with an unsolicited proposal from MTD Philippines Inc., a Malaysian firm that both proposed the project and eventually won the contract.

“From the unsolicited proposal alone, there were already red flags. The same company that made the proposal ended up winning the bid. That’s an anomaly right there,” Lao said in an earlier interview.

He stressed that other contractors would have needed at least six months to study the proposal and prepare a competitive bid. However, the bidding window was reportedly only 45 days.

“If you only give contractors 45 days, what does that mean? You’ve already favored MTD. The one who designed the project and recommended the plan ended up being the contractor,” he said.

Lao also raised legal and financial red flags, claiming that MTD Philippines does not possess a Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board license and has no record of withholding tax payments with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

He also slammed the P855 million cost for the preliminary and detailed engineering design, saying that by Philippine standards, it should only cost around P50 million.

Lao argued that the local government should have commissioned its own feasibility studies instead of relying on a foreign firm.

Earlier, Sotto stated that the cost computations per square meter were “inaccurate and misleading.”

He also explained that under the design-and-build procurement modality, detailed cost estimates are still being finalized before contract signing.

Sought for comment, Sotto said the contract has been readily available on the Pasig website.

“Parts of the engineering consultant’s report have been presented in reports to the public; it can also be requested via FOI request, rather than yet another press release,” the mayor said in a statement sent to DAILY TRIBUNE via Viber and through the city public information office.

Sotto added that the said project is not only one building, but a two-hectare redevelopment project that includes three towers, a large plaza, a medical facility and interior roads.

“While structural issues and public safety are the top concerns, we must also now maximize the city hall compound’s land value,” he said.

“If Mr. Lao is sincere in his queries, I would be more than willing to tour him on-site, so that he may understand both the scope and value of this project,” the mayor added.