ILOILO CITY, (PNA) — The City Bids And Award Committee will hold a second auction within the month for the city government’s 6.9-hectare lot in Barangay Ungka I, Pavia town after no bidders participated in the first auction sale on September 30.
City Administrator Norlito Bautista said they are preparing another round of publication in two national newspapers and two local newspapers announcing the second auction sale.
The lot costs P2,500 per square meter as recommended by the Commission on Audit (COA).
The Pavia lot, which has total of 69,702 square meters, is worth P174.255 million. It is considered a prime lot along the national highway going to the municipality of Pavia, some 30 minutes from Iloilo City Proper.
The area was the site of the low-cost housing project for city government employees that was abandoned by contractor Ace Builders Inc. due to non-payment of the city government after the latter found out that substandard construction materials were used.
The City Council similarly rescinded the Ace Builders contract in 2011 after futile efforts to locate contractor Alexander Trinidad in his last known addresses in Metro Manila and Iloilo.
Bautista said that under COA rules, failure of bidding twice will push the city government as lot owner to resort to a negotiated sale of the property.