“(W)hat is more important now to the country is not who gets the project but that it finally gets done. This is something that we sorely need.”
by Ducky Paredes
Reading the side of FF Cruz/Filsystems in its dispute with the Light Rail Transit Agency (LRTA) one wonders: Does Felipe F. Cruz, Jr. think that the government is peopled by total idiots?
According to Philip Cruz, he conceived the plan to connect the LRT 1 that ends at Monumento to the Metro Rail Line that ends at North Avenue on EDSA, spent a fortune to design the project and took out a copyright on these. Then, he proposed this plan to the government as early as 2004.
Years later, says Philip, the government came up with the same plan and bid this out under a design-and-build system whereby the winning bidder would design and build the extension. According to Cruz, what the government actually did was to give his complete design (that he had submitted earlier) to the winning bidder. In addition, FF Cruz/Filsystems was disqualified from the bidding by bending the bidding rules to fit the favored, eventual winning bidder.
How easy it is to throw mud at a government that has already lost a lot of its credibility and almost all shreds of respectability! In fact, a couple of congressmen have signed on as part of the FF Cruz wrecking crew and the fireworks are just beginning and will eventually become a big, big show, perhaps even bigger than that of the ZTE-NBN. The idea now is to derail the completion of the extension out of spite. Since FF Cruz did not get the project, he is out to wreck it.
But, what is more important now to the country is not who gets the project but that it finally gets done. This is something that we sorely need. What Philip Cruz is doing is wrong.
The extension can be built by May 2010. This is the largest infrastructure project that will be completely Pinoy. It is the first Pinoy-funded, Pinoy-designed, and Pinoy-built infrastructure project and it can be built in record time, even before the May 2010 deadline. This is a 5.71 kilometer elevated mass transit line running along EDSA from the corner of North Avenue to the Monumento.
If Cruz succeeds in what he has set out to do – derail the project – will the country be better off?
The way it looks to me, Cruz thought that he could steal a march on everyone for a project that was sure to come up since it was such a natural. How did he lose out in the end? I do not really know. Perhaps, he was counting on a friend who was no longer around when Cruz needed him.
Even before 2004, there was already talk of connecting the two lines. This is a natural. There are two unconnected lines serving the same population of riders. What is easier to conceptualize than building a short line to connect the two? It does not take genius to think this up. In effect, Cruz thought up what millions of us also envisioned. Does that give him sole rights to the idea?
Can an idea or a concept be given a copyright? Filsystem has Copyright No. 1-2006-07 granted on April 24, 2006 on a design that FF Cruz says cost him P160 million. (This has to be a gross exaggeration. No one in his right mind would spend that amount on a mere concept in the hope that the project would be given to him.)
He insists that the LRTA showed his design to the Cabinet which the agency passed off as its own design. This is false. What the LRTA showed the Cabinet was only a concept based on its existing Line 1. There was no design yet since there had not even been a bidding yet. (Remember that the winning bidder would design and build!)
Besides, Cruz had no dealings with the LRTA – none at all!
In 2004, he sent his Filsystems unsolicited proposal to the DOTC, not to the LRTA, before the present administrator of the LRTA, Mel Robles, had even been appointed to his post.
Cruz also says that the LRTA did not reply to the submission of his unsolicited proposal which it must do within 30 days after submission with another response – a final answer (rejection or acceptance) within 60 days. But, how could the LRTA do this when the proposal was submitted to the DOTC, not the LRTA?
The board of the LRTA is composed of the heads of the DOTC, NEDA, DPWH, DBM, DOF, LTFRB and the MMDA and some representatives from the private sector. Never was the Filsystems unsolicited proposal even brought to the attention of this board. Certainly, if there were a copyrighted Filsystems design in the possession of any of the board members, this would have been discussed in a board meeting. There is no indication that the Board was even aware of the Filsystems design (if there really was one).
Besides, if Cruz is truly convinced that his copyright was violated, he should go after the winning bidder – DMCI-First Balfour Joint Venture – and not the LRTA that had nothing to do with the design of the project. D. M. Consunji (DCMI) is a Philippine construction company that is even bigger that FF Cruz with the additional benefit of being one that follows bidding rules to the letter!
Was the disqualification of FF Cruz’s bid frivolous, as suggested by a congressman? No; among the government’s requirements in all of its biddings is the submission of an electronically filed tax return. Cruz knew this. In fact, for the FF Cruz/Filsystems bid, there was an electronically filed return for FF Cruz. What was lacking was one for Filsystems.
This is not a frivolous requirement. Under the present procurement laws, the government wants to make sure that it is dealing with firms that pay their taxes. Income tax is usually paid before April 15 each year and value added and percentage taxes every quarter. Both FF Cruz and Filsystems have participated in a lot of government biddings; why they could not follow the bidding rules in this one is, to put it mildly, very strange.
Both firms are in fact already enrolled in the BIR/EFPS. Thus, there really is no reason why they would not know these regulations. So, why did they fail to submit the proper forms?
As it turns out, Felipe Cruz, Jr. took himself out of the competition by not following the bidding rules.
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hvp 02.19.09)
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