Uniwide Corp. asks court to cancel deed of sale of Parañaque property

MANILA, Philippines—The Uniwide Sales Realty and Resources Corporation (USRRC) asked the Parañaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) to cancel the Public Estates Authority’s (PEA) deed of sale and supplemental deed of sale with the Manila Bay Development Corporation (MBDC) for the development of a prime coastal estate in Paranaque.

In Civil Case No. 14-0288 for Declaratory Relief by USRRC said the agreement violated the terms and conditions of the award.

MBDC has acquired the property at a very low price of P472.037 million or P1,150 per square meter. The sale was contingent on the would-be winning bidder’s commitment for the development of the land within five years of the sale.

But the petitioner said MBDC failed to introduce any development or fulfill its promise of a Greenhhills type complex and its admission in a pleading in another legal case that “it did not make any commitment of development” with respect to this Central Business Park II lot, means it is in default of both the original Deed of Sale in 1988 and the supplemental accord in 1989.

Petitioner said it showed that it has “no intention from the very beginning to develop the property, but acquired the same for speculative purposes only, contrary to the conditions of the award.”

This latest case against MBDC was filed by USRRC through lawyer Salvador Hababag using as basis a board resolution passed by this Uniwide Group last Sept. 15 authorizing the corporation to file a taxpayer’s suit against MBDC.

The petitioner said it sought court intervention just now because it was able to obtain PEA records only last July showing that MBDC had managed to acquire Central Business Park II through public bidding, in which a major condition set by the seller PEA was for the winning bidder to submit a five-year “implementation schedule” for the property’s development plan, and that at least 60% of this schedule was to be completed on the fifth year of that agreement.

This case is one of the slew of legal actions taken to legally compel Uniwide’s lessor to return P381 million in rentals and extend by another 20 years the lease on its Parañaque reclamation property along Roxas Boulevard that is home to the Coastal Mall.

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