BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The provincial government of Negros Occidental is not yanking out its capitol out of this city after all.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said yesterday the contractor who won the bid to build a new provincial capitol here, Dynamic Builders and Construction Corporation, did not agree to undergo another bidding process for the proposed change of location for the new capitol.
“We will not transfer anymore to Talisay City,” said Lacson.
A rebidding is required if the construction of the new capitol will be moved to the provincial government property in Talisay City.
Lacson earlier planned to move capitol offices to a 25-hectare property of the provincial government along the Bacolod-Silay Airport Access Road in Talisay City.
Dynamic Builders won the nearly P1-billion contract to build a seven-storey “New Provincial Administration Building” at the facility’s old site along Gatuslao and Calamba streets here.
The contractor was already paid the usual 15 percent advance payment for its mobilization fund.
The governor already gave the “green light” to Dynamic Builder, to begin the construction.
“We will be monitoring the progress,” Lacson said.
The timeline for the construction is three years.
Lacson said the challenge is in managing the traffic around the site.
“We have to talk to Mayor-elect Alfredo Benitez of Bacolod City about this,” he said.
Before he was elected Bacolod mayor, Benitez was the Negros Occidental provincial government’s consultant for economic affairs.
With Benitez as Bacolod mayor, the city is expected to have a closer relationship with the Negros Occidental provincial government./PN
