The Utilities Consumers Alliance of Negros is asking the Bacolod City Water District to furnish them a copy of the feasibility study of its bulk water supply project, which it promised to provide after its bidding last week.

The consortium of Mactan Rocks Industries Inc. from Cebu City was the lone bidder for the Injection Points 1 and 2 of the bulk water supply project of Baciwa.

Mactan Rocks together with its partners Tubig Pilipinas and TGV Builders Inc. offered a bid offer of P8.85 per cubic meter for Injection Point 1 and P9.85 per cubic meter for Injection Point 2, which is below the ceiling set by Baciwa which is P10 per cubic meter, during the opening of bids last week.

Baciwa interim general manager Mario Macatangay yesterday said they will provide UCAN a copy of the feasibility study if it will officially make a request and state the purpose for it.

UCAN had earlier asked Baciwa to hold in abeyance the bidding of the project pending further study and public consultations.

Vicente Petierre lll, legal counsel of UCAN, said that during their meeting Thursday, the members of UCAN decided to write Baciwa requesting that they be provided a copy of the feasibility study, which was the basis for the bulk water project.

It was Baciwa that committed to UCAN and to other consumers groups during a public hearing of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Energy on June 10 that it will provide a copy of the feasibility study only after the bidding, he said.

Macatangay had said then that they did not want to make the feasibility public before the bidding because they did not want to compromise the integrity of the whole bidding process for the bulk water supply project.

Petierre said the bidding was already conducted July 1 and 2 so it is incumbent upon Baciwa to provide them a feasibility study as this is a public record. As we always said the right to information cannot be deprived the consumers or residents of Bacolod, he said.

Based on the feasibility study they will see the justification of Baciwa for the project. Baciwa said the study was not made overnight but took years to prepare, he said.

Petierre recalled that Baciwa general manager Juliana Carbon reiterated their commitment to provide UCAN a copy.

He clarified that UCAN is not an obstacle to any development but it is in the business of protecting the interest of the consumers.

They recognize the fact that there is shortage of water. They are not opposing the project but the process in coming up with the project and why all of a sudden there was a bidding even without any public consultation, Petierre said.

It is the process being questioned by UCAN which was not sufficiently explained by Baciwa, he said.

Petierre said they believe there should be a coordinated function between Baciwa and other cities and municipalities where the water will be sourced. So, UCAN was asking for the postponement of the bidding since there are several concerns that have not yet been addressed, he said.*CGS

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