• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, representing the City of Bacolod, entered into a joint venture agreement with William Russell Scheirman Jr., chairman and president of WRS Holding, Inc., and president and CEO of Scheirman Construction Consolidated Inc., for the Bacolod Housing Project, under a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme yesterday.
The signing was held at the lobby of the Bacolod Government Center, after the mayor was granted by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod authority to sign the agreement for a project known as “The public-private partnership development for a mixed-used integrated structure for housing and sustainable community,” during its regular session held yesterday.
Councilors Renecito Novero and Em Ang voted in the affirmative with qualified conditions.
Novero requested that the 10 percent share of the city from the commercial lots be renegotiated to a higher percentage such as 20 to 30 percent, after being clarified during a public hearing yesterday, that the city will not be receiving a single cent from the increment of the lots where the residential units will be established. He also requested that the subject land owned by the city will not be mortgaged or used as collateral by any entity, without the consent of the SP.
Meanwhile, Ang requested that the share of the city in the commercial lots be negotiated to a higher percentage since the industry practice is at least 30 to 40 percent.
Benitez said the project will be one of the first PPP agreements to be entered by a local government for the Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino Program of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The Scheirman consortium will build an initial set of Asenso Yuhum Housing Units, numbering around 10,000, at the city relocation site in Brgy. Vista Alegre, and on the city’s property in BREDCO, with a commitment to build another set of 10,000 units as additional land is made available by the city government.*
