The contractor of the stalled P280-million pedestrian skywalk in Muntinlupa City wants Mayor Aldrin San Pedro and city councilors suspended for ignoring a Build-Operate-Transfer contract approved in 2006.

The Muntinlupa-based construction firm N.C. Tavu & Associates Corp. said yesterday criminal and administrative charges against the local executives would be filed before the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Interior and Local Government.

?The mayor and the city council obviously acted with grave abuse of authority when they refused to honor the perfected [BOT] contract. Mayor San Pedro continues to ignore our demands to issue us a Notice of Effectivity so we can proceed with the construction,? company lawyer Doroteo Aguila told Standard Today.

?We are now preparing the charges and will file it this month,? he said.

Aguila said San Pedro violated the Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials when he sat on the demand letters sent to him by N.C. Tavu seeking the approval or revision of the project plans and designs within 30 days under Clause 13 of the BOT agreement.

N.C. Tavu has earlier gone to court to stop San Pedro and the city council from rescinding the contract involving the construction of the Elevated Multi-Link Pedestrian Walkway at the Alabang Viaduct.

The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court has yet to set a hearing on the firm?s petition for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

N.C. Tavu president Neil Tavu said he and Muntinlupa Mayor Jaime Fresnedi signed the 24-year BOT agreement on Dec. 5, 2006 following the approval of the Bids and Awards Committee, the city council and the National Economic and Development Authority.

But San Pedro, after winning in the 2007 polls, ordered the city council to dump the contract and instead look for other qualified bidders to build a similar pedestrian overpass at the Alabang Viaduct.

The city government said N.C. Tavu had no financial capability to pursue the project, among other deficiencies. Ferdinand Fabella