Fire bidding dragon

The hot news among our firemen lately was the contentious bidding for a P240-million contract to equip them with fireproof outfits – i.e. coats, gloves and boots.

The bidding took place in 2010, but up to now our underpaid and ill-equipped firemen still fight fire with pure guts, putting their lives in danger because of the lack of modern fireproof outfits. It seems that trouble has bedeviled the bidding from the start.

Early this year, or more than a year after the bidding, the Department of Interior and Local Government disqualified the company that supposedly “won” in the bidding, a little known outfit called Kolonwel.

It was the DILG head dragon, Secretary Jesse Robredo, who announced the disqualification of Kolonwel, saying that the company failed to comply with the bidding rules, particularly on the documents that the bidders were required to submit.

One of them was the filing of income tax returns. Kolonwel reportedly filed its returns “manually,” for 2010 and 2011, when the bidding rules specified an electronic filing system.

Kolonwel claimed the computer system of the BIR bogged down during the tax-filing season in April of both years.

Now, Kolonwel is reportedly threatening to sue Robredo for the DILG decision to support the disqualification of the company. For his part, Robredo noted that Kolonwel might have committed perjury for claiming that the BIR computer system was not working.

The company already filed a case before the Ombudsman against the Bureau of Fire Protection, particularly OIC Chief Superintendent Samuel Perez, who only inherited the Kolonwel problem from his predecessor.

According to reports, when Perez became the fire chief, he wanted to speed up the acquisition of the fireproof outfits for his men. Thus, he had to review the bidding. It was then that the BFP found out that Kolonwel, allegedly, falsified a “Certificate of Fire Industry” that the bidding rules required from the country of the foreign supplier, which was South Korea.

My info is there was only one Korean company that was supposedly certified by the Korean government for those particular firefighting gears needed by our local firemen.

In reaction to the case filed by Kolonwel, reports quoted Robredo as saying: “We’re facing a legal problem here…If we will award the contract to Kolonwel, knowing they did not comply with the documentary requirements, Perez and I could be sued just as well. If we deny Kolonwel the contract, they would also sue us.”

It is widely known that government contracts could be rigged to favor certain suppliers. Perhaps Kolonwel’s claims might have merit. Let us see.

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Little is known about Kolonwel. Based on a letter published by this newspaper, which supposedly came from the company, it is based in Binondo. The letter also supposedly came from a certain Peter Go Cheng, who claimed to be its “representative.”

From what I gathered, it seems that the main man behind Kolonwel is a certain Juanito Tionloc, and the case against the BFP was not the first time that he and his company raised hell involving government contracts.

Several years ago, the Department of Education needed 17 million copies of textbooks and manuals. Kolonwel joined the bidding but the DepED also disqualified it.

The company sued the DepEd. It also sued the Department of Budget. The company asked for and obtained an injunction order from the RTC in Manila.

Of course, a case as big as that would have to reach all the way up to the Supreme Court eventually. From what I gathered, the Supreme Court en banc later on upheld the validity of the contract that the DepEd and the DBM awarded to another company, in effect throwing away Kolonwel’s case against both departments. The Supreme Court also nullified the decision of the lower court favoring Kolonwel.

Quietly in the past several years, Kolonwel has been winning contracts after contracts to supply government-owned casino operator Pagcor with multimillion pesos’ worth of slot machines, gold rings, playing cards and table layout cloth, and even some chemicals.

The same company also bagged a huge contract a few years ago with the National Food Authority, or the NFA, for the supply of plastic bags worth more than P30 million.

The P240-million supply contract with BFP would have been the big one, but from what I gathered, Kolonwel was never really known for supplying firefighting equipment and gears.

In the business community in Binondo, the company is really known to deal with orthopedic, prosthetic and surgical supplies. But the mystery of it all is that the Kolonwel website claimed the company was established in 1977 to be “actively engaged in the international distribution of gaming supplies and equipment to the gaming industry worldwide.”

Which is which, really? The BIR is reportedly going over Kolonwel’s tax records, particularly in the light of its huge contracts with Pagcor and NFA. Let us see.

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It could be pure luck, but it seems that Puno & Puno Law Offices, known in business circles as PPLO, has an uncanny ability to recruit new law school graduates who eventually would do well in the bar exams.

The top two in the 2011 exams reportedly joined PPLO last year, namely, Raoul Angelo Atadero and Luz Danielle Bolong, who both came from the Ateneo Law School, the same law school of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona, whose defense team reportedly tried to recruit the two, albeit unsuccessfully.

PPLO was founded by retired Justice Ricardo Puno Sr., who is the father of television host Ric “Dong” Puno, who is also a senior partner in the firm, together with Regis Puno, who used to be a justice undersecretary.