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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider COA denies P13.05-M reimbursements sought by construction firm from Iloilo province

COA denies P13.05-M reimbursements sought by construction firm from Iloilo province

Published Aug 20, 2025 02:54 pm
The Commission on Audit (COA) has denied the P13.05 million in reimbursements for liquidated damages sought by DCMS Trading and Construction against Iloilo for the province’s Parking Building Design and Build Contract.
On March 26, 2018, Gov. Arthur D. Defensor Sr. approved and issued to DCMS the notice of award for the parking building at Bonifacio Drive, Iloilo City amounting to P185,194,660.60 with a duration of 420 days.
The contract stated that the original date of completion was supposedly June 3, 2019, but DCMS was allowed 45 days extension or until July 18, 2019.
However, as of Jan. 15, 2021, DCMS only completed 96.78 percent of the project. The provincial government assessed and billed DCMS P20,743,683.76 in total liquidated damages until Sept. 30, 2021.
On the contrary, DCMS previously submitted claims to the province for various change orders and claimed liquidated damages amounting to P10,606,960.46 and P2,446,639.47 or a total of P13,053,599.93.
On July 7, 2021, the provincial engineer said that the change orders cannot be issued anymore because the contract already expired and liquidated damages were already collected.
Before the COA, DCMS argued that the changes were not part of the original contract or plan but were performed pursuant to verbal instructions of the provincial engineer and project inspector.
The province denied the requests and reasoned that DCMS was expected to have visited the project site and familiarized itself with conditions that have a direct bearing on the project.
The COA decided to deny the money claim as it ruled that the arguments of DCMS have "no probative value."
"Evaluation of the audit team leader disclosed that the change orders claimed by DCMS are not those which have not been anticipated in the contract documents but are due to errors, omissions, inconsistencies, or inadequacies of DCMS," the decision stated.
The COA also said that DCMS’s claims were based only on alleged verbal instructions, so these are unsubstantiated allegations and do not constitute substantial evidence.
The nine-page decision was signed by Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba and Commissioners Mario G. Lipana and Douglas Michael N. Mallillin.
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