• THERESA MAE DULMAN
Bacolod City Mayor Greg Gasataya criticized the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) for the lack of a ‘sense of urgency’ regarding the progress and planning gaps of its P300 million Bacolod Government Center and public plaza rehabilitation project.
The mayor’s remarks follow the discovery that power supply requirements for the Bacolod City Government Center (BCGC) fountain rehabilitation was omitted from the original contract, according to TIEZA.
“We are appreciative of their project from the national government, but our point is there is no sense of urgency coming from them to finish the project as soon as possible,” he said.
Gasataya stated that he has already scheduled a meeting with TIEZA because the information that reached him indicated that the public plaza only requires a few minor adjustments regarding its electrical requirements.
However, the problem lies in the Bacolod City Government Center (BCGC), as TIEZA revealed that the installation of the power supply was entirely excluded from the contract, a detail the mayor said he only discovered last Thursday.
The mayor expressed that he was furious upon receiving that information, noting that in the first place, the agency should have already known what the project required.
He explained that TIEZA initially assumed they could just tap into the existing power supply, but subsequent computations proved otherwise, as the current system is only sufficient for the local government facility’s standard operations.
While TIEZA suggested requesting the necessary infrastructure from their office since funds are supposedly available, Gasataya observed that the agency lacks a sense of urgency, seeming content with merely having a national project.
Gasataya said that he will wait for their solution but the city cannot wait forever while both the government center and the public plaza remain boarded up.
The fountain redevelopment is part of a P300-million national government funding package for Bacolod, which includes P220 million for the BCGC fountain area and P80 million for the public plaza renovation, with construction supposed to end last year.*
