Makati Building II contractor also worked on other govt buildings

The Senate's investigation into P2.3 billion Makati City Hall Building II found that the building's contractor, Hilmarc’s Construction Corporation, had built a total of five other building for the Makati City government.

A Firday report on GMA 7's “24 Oras” said that that Hilmarc's had also built a building for the Ospital ng Makati, Makati City Hall, the University of Makati nursing building, and a new Makati Science High School building.



On Thursday Engr. Mario Hechanova, former head of the city's General Services Department and vice chairman of Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), said he was ordered by then-city Engineer Nelson Morales to rig the bidding for the City Hall Building II project in favor of Hilmarc's.

Hechanov also said then mayor now Vice President Jejomar Binay knew of the rigged bidding.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Audit was suspicious of the bidding process for the Makati City Hall Building II, and now plans to have a special audit of the project.

"Ang procurement process na nakatakda under Procurement Act, siguro mga 130 plus days ang pinakamaikli na, pero dito two and a half months from bidding to awarding of contract. Super bilis 'yun especially with this amount," COA chairperson Grace Pulido-Tan told GMA News.

Makati City Administrator Eleno Mendoza countered that the Makati Building II project had withstood 10 audit reviews since 2008 to 2013. “And we are confident that these reviews would be validated," declared Mendoza.

But the COA said that what they did check and audit was the engineer technical report and not the actual project.

Other projects

Meantime, Kabataan partylist representative Terry Ridon said in a press statement that Hilmarc's Construction was also involved in the Commission on Higher Education's (CHED's) P500 million  Business Process Outsourcing Incubation Contact Center (BPO-ICC) project, which the COA had halted back in 2009 due to several irregularities.,

A 2007 CHED report said that the project did not undergo the proper bidding procedures, and that its civil works component was overpriced.,

Hilmarc’s website, meanwhile, said that the firm had also worked on several other government projects, including:

• the Bacolod and Calamba City Halls,
• the Iloilo Provincial Capitol,
• the Sandiganbayan Building,
• the Batasan South Wing Annex Building,
• and the Quezon City General Hospital.