G.R. No. 114944 - MANUEL C. ROXAS AND AHMED S. NACPIL, VS. HON.

Ruling

Accordingly, the public bidding was held on September 14, 1990, where the following suppliers submitted their respective bids, to wit: Supplier Bid Price 1. Aeolus Phil. P 1,218,240.00 2. V.G. Roxas Enterprises 1,720,764.00 3 CISC 1,943,549.64 4. Tahei Co., Ltd. 2,292,784.00 5. Viceroy Const. Comm'l Corp. 2,385,775.00 6. Sumitomo Corp. 2,521,730.00 7. Worldtrade Inter NW 2,700,000.00 8. Accumetrix 2,844,844.20 9. Comm'l Mfr. Corp. 2,985,000.00 10. Asianet Tech 3,012,606.00 11. Philipps Associate 3,016,348.30 [3] The lowest bidder, Aeolus Philippines, was disqualified since its fire trucks had a water tank capacity of only 1,800 liters, far below the required 3,785 liter capacity. After the opening of the bids, Director General Cesar Nazareno created a Technical Evaluation Committee composed of four members, headed by Gen. Mario C. Tanchanco, to conduct ocular inspections of the overseas plant facilities and equipment of the five qualified lowest bidders. On December 4, 1990, the Technical Committee submitted its report to General Nazareno, rating the quality of the inspected fire trucks based on the ranking of their respective companies from the lowest to the highest bidder as follows: Toyota Morita Ssangyong Nikki-Hino Morita-Isuzu On December 18, 1990, the Bids and Awards Committee came up with its own listing of lowest bidders whose offered fire trucks met with the agency's minimum requirements, as follows: V.G. Roxas Enterprises (Kanglim) CISC (Ssangyong) Taihei Corp. (Nikki/Hino) Sumitomo Corp. (Isuzu Morita) On December 20, 1990, Gen. Tanchanco submitted his Inspection Findings [4] to Gen. Nazareno, recommending only two fire trucks, namely Morita Isuzu and Nikki-Hino. On the other hand, on December 28, 1990, the Bids and Awards Committee voted to award the contract in favor of the Korean company CISC, which offered Ssangyong fire trucks. [5] On January 2, 1991, it submitted its recommendation to Gen. Nazareno for the procurement of Ssangyong fire trucks. [6] Gen. Nazareno, however, as approving authority, refused to act on the recommendation and, instead, created a Review Committee with Gen. Flores as Chairman. Gen. Tanchanco also submitted his Inspection Findings to this Review Committee, reiterating his recommendation of the Morita Isuzu and Nikki-Hino fire trucks. On March 21, 1991, Gen. Flores submitted his Memorandum to Gen. Nazareno, stating that the action of the Bids and Awards Committee resulted in a failure to bid. [7] Accordingly, Gen. Nazareno ordered the Bids and Awards Committee to review its recommendations and consider the findings of the Review Committee. In compliance with the directive, the Bids and Awards Committee limited its choice to the two brands recommended by Gen. Tanchanco and, by majority vote, elected Nikki-Hino of the Tahei Co., Ltd. as the lower bidder. Thus, the Bids and Awards Committed submitted its Memorandum to Gen. Nazareno dated May 9, 1991, embodying the aforesaid recommendation. [8] Thereafter, the