Is this another fraud-tainted infrastructure project or is there an attempt of a losing contractor to discredit the bidding process?   National Irrigation Administration head Carlos Salazar swore that the bidding for the purchase of Pl.4 billion worth of heavy machinery by the agency was above board. And he lengthily explained why. The agency chief also clarified that the project had not yet been awarded to either of the two pre-qualified bidders. One would have thought that the controversy would die down with Salazar?s vigorous defense of the transaction.

But it has not.

The irrigation czar?s explanation has only emboldened Senator Mar Roxas to get to the bottom of the alleged anomalous deal, which he had exposed in a privilege speech at the Senate.  He claimed that the government would be at the losing end of the deal because of an alleged P300-million overprice in the procurement of equipment for the repair and rehabilitation of irrigation facilities. He suspected that the proceeds from the questioned deal could be used for the campaign of administration candidates in the 2010 elections.

The senator from Capiz revealed a purported attempt by NIA to award, last Jan. 16, the irrigation project to two ?favored bidders who obviously enjoyed the backing from influential people in the government.?  He said the award was aborted when he publicly denounced the deal. In Resolution 880, he asked the Blue Ribbon committee, chaired by Senator Richard Gordon, to look into the alleged manipulation of the bidding process which, he said, was made ?precisely to limit the number of participants in the bidding for the supply of the irrigation equipment.?  The project is financed by a P1.4-billion loan from the state-owned National Development Corp.

  ?It is very clear that the process was designed to favor certain people,? Roxas said. To back up his allegation, he pointed to the ?abbreviated? period within which bidders were to submit their bids and the ?erroneous invitations to bid sent by the NIA.?  He claimed that the invitation was flawed because it was purportedly made to appear that the invitation was for supplying agriculture ?equipment when what the agency needed were heavy machineries.?

According to Roxas, the confusion over the invitation to bid and the short period for bidders to submit their proposals resulted in the local market?s top two heavy machinery suppliers being shunted out of the project.  This left the Civic Merchandising Inc. and the Transport Equipment Corp. vying to bag the contract. However, the senator said, they should have been disqualified for allegedly failing to meet the total sales requirement stipulated in the NIA rules for this particular project.

  Consequently, two heavy equipment distributors (which account for 70 percent of local market share) were eliminated from the prequalification, even if their bid prices were more competitive than those which won, Roxas claimed. Maxima Machineries Inc., number one in the industry, was able to meet the deadline, but was disqualified purportedly due to incorrect documents.  On the other hand, Monark Equipment Corp. (number two in the industry) was disqualified from the start because there was confusion on the deadline for the purchase of bid documents.

  The Senate probe of the bidding for the P1.4-billion irrigation project has yet to take off, but already there are calls for to void the bidding outcome and conduct a re-bid. This would put to rest the allegations that there was an overprice, the proponents of the rebidding say.

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The Philippines stands to earn for itself another international recognition as the nation braces for what promises be the biggest march against illegal drugs with a targeted one million participants in the Grand Batang Iwas Droga (BIDA). On Saturday, March 21, the marchers will assemble at the CCP complex starting at 1 p.m. before marching along Roxas Boulevard up to the Quirino Grandstand at the Rizal Park.

Spearheaded by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the BIDA Foundation with support from various government agencies, local government units and non-government organizations, the event is expected to draw in more than 700,000 public elementary schoolchildren, and more than 300,000 other youngsters, parents and teachers. The mammoth crowd is enough to qualify for a slot in the Guinness World Book of Records.

Conceived by Pagcor chairman Efraim Genuino, the BIDA project is a massive information campaign that aims to educate children between the ages of six and 12 on the dangers of drug abuse. It utilizes innovative means to communicate its message such as a comic book series, a cartoon series for television, creation of a BIDA Kids Club as well as activities like BIDA sa Eskuwela campus tours, BIDA Summer Camp and mini-Olympics.

In recent months, the program was revitalized through BIDA sa Eskuwela Caravans in various public elementary schools in Metro Manila and Cavite. The caravans were meant to disseminate information on the war against drugs and to lure children into joining the BIDA Kids Club. To date, the BIDA Kids Club has a membership of about half a million schoolchildren, organizers say.

In a briefing for newsmen at the Pan-Pacific Hotel in Malate Monday, Pagcor vice president for corporate communications Dodie King explained why schoolchildren were tapped as prime target of the anti-drug campaign. ?If we start educating them about the harmful effects of substance abuse at a very young age, they will develop a natural avoidance or hatred for illegal drugs.?

As part of the come-ons for all registered participants, they will be entitled to free ride at the MRT-LRT trains, courtesy of the Department of Transportation and Communications. Maynilad Water will set up free water stations along the route of the march to rehydrate the marchers while the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office will field volunteer health workers to render first aid services. There will also be Libreng Tawag phone stations that marchers can use for their calls, thanks to the National Telecommunications Commission and its partners in the industry.