The Supreme Court has restrained the Manila City Regional Trial Court from stopping the Bureau of Customs from canceling the award of the P650-million contract to the joint venture of Omniprime Marketing Inc. and Intrasoft International Inc. for the agency’s computerization project.
In a two-page resolution, the SC’s Second Division chaired by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio granted the appeal of the BOC for the issuance of TRO enjoining Presiding Judge Paulino Q. Gallegos of Manila City RTC, Branch 47, from enforcing its Aug. 24, 2015 order enjoining the bureau from proceeding with the cancellation of the contract award.
The TRO will take effect immediately and continuing until further orders, the high court said.
The high court also directed Omniprime and Intrasoft to comment on the petition filed by BoC and the Department of Budget and Management within 10 days.
The SC acted on the petition filed by Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina and DBM Procurement Service executive director Jose Tomas Syquia assailing the injunction issued by the Manila court.
The injunction enjoined Lina and Syquia from implementing the former’s May 6, 2015 letter aborting the competitive bidding for the computerization program and the May 7, 2015 cancellation issued by Syquia.
The RTC also ordered the BoC and the DBM to continue with the remaining procurement process of signing the contract and to issue to Omniprime the notice to proceed with the project.
The lower court also enjoined the respondents from conducting another bidding to replace the present customs systems, which is the subject matter of the case.
Petitioner’s right to be awarded with the project is already clear and present, were it not for the cancellation and with absence of the grounds provided for by law,” the order stated.
The trial court found meritorious Omniprime’s petition for injunctive relief as its rights as a bidder “appear, from the evidence presented” by both parties, to have been “unduly and unfairly violated” by the sudden cancellation of the procurement process for the PNSW 2 project, which is part of Customs’ modern integrated enhanced customs processing system.
Omniprime sought redress before the trial court to stop Lina’s decision to cancel the contract, which it said, has been successfully bidded out by the DBM.
Lawyer Harry Roque, counsel for Omniprime, claimed that “one of the five losing bidders in the project, E-Konek, is a company where Lina has a 96.48-percent stake.
Annabelle Margaroli, president of mobile IT solutions provider Omni Prime Marketing Inc., had also lodged a plunder complaint against Lina, former Customs commissioner Guillermo Parayno Jr. and former deputy commissioner Primo Aguas for conflict of interest for arbitrarily voiding the contract which had been approved during the term of former Customs commissioner John Sevilla.
The IECPS is composed of two consolidated computer programs necessary for the Asean integration.
The integrated system along with a national single window is seen as the solution to address smuggling in the Philippines.
It establishes a central database system that tracks in real time all customs procedures nationwide. It aims to be a fully electronic, paperless and human contact-free system of recording and monitoring customs transactions.
The NSW consolidates relevant services from all government agencies involved in customs procedures using international standards.
On the other hand, Asean member-states have agreed on a common window system to fast-track cargo clearance as they move towards regional integration.
The system complies to international open communication standards while ensuring that each of the member-countries can exchange data securely and reliably with any trading partners that use international open standards.
Lina, however, voided this two weeks after he took office last April 2015, replacing former BoC Commissioner John Sevilla.
Lina stated that he nullified the contract because he wanted to review all projects of the BoC.