Guv to preserve historic Provincial Jail building
Negros Occidental Governor Isidro Zayco revealed his plan to preserve the historic image of the Provincial Jail building located in Gatuslao Street by renovating it soon and develop it into a commercial complex.
Zayco proposed a good name for it and it will called the "Jail House Commercial Complex". The plan is to open the site and spaces for rental on interested business people. "The provincial government will gain something as part of its economic enterprise and money-making venture," the governor added.
No demolition will happen instead the detention cell will serve as stalls later after the renovation.
Meanwhile, the construction of a new P100 million jail for Negros Occidental in Bago City is expected to start soon when the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) started to open the bids of the prospective bidders on Wednesday.
Four contractors joined the bidding namely B.E Construction with bid amount of P22 million; Dynamic Builders, P27 million; Jaime Ching Enterprises, 27 million; while F-Korea Construction was never opened because of the non-compliance with one of the requirements. The BAC agreed through its chairman Joey Salado, also the Provincial Budget Officer to allow F-Korea Construction to file its motion for reconsideration prior to the opening of its financial bid.
The present Negros Occidental Provincial Jail in Bacolod City is being run by the provincial government at a cost of about P24 million a year. The provincial government has seen it that building a new jail that will be ran by the BJMP will be more cost-efficient citing the cost of about P24 million a year allotted by the province and the amount is expected to increase with a hike in the food budget of the inmates.
The Department of Interior and Local Government will make Negros Occidental a pilot area in its takeover of the provincial jail management and the management of the new provincial jail to the BJMP in about three years' time will be contained in a Memorandum of Agreement.