MANILA, Philippines—It is basically a stinking deal between the government and a private company, and the sad thing about it is that there is not much we, the tax-paying public, can do about it.

It seems that, based on a report in this newspaper about two weeks ago, quoting from the privilege speech of Rep. Pablo John Garcia (3rd district, Cebu), the deal involves the Cebu City government and Filinvest Land.

That company belongs to the Filinvest group of taipan Andrew Gotianun. It is the same group that, in another controversial deal in the 1990s, during the time of President Fidel “Kuya Eddie” Ramos, also got more than 200 hectares of land from the government. The project is now known as “Filinvest City” in Alabang.

Reportedly, the city and the company entered into a “joint venture” to develop some 50.6 hectare of prime reclaimed land in Cebu.

Originally, Filinvest Land was to remit to the city government some P1.5 billion for the use of the land in the joint venture, and the payment must be done in three years.

What do you know, Bruno, that payment scheme is no more. Sweet!

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ACCORDING to Garcia, the city agreed to sell to the company some 10 hectares of the property outright. You know—outside the joint venture!

And how much must Filinvest Land shell out? Well, only P2 billion!

Moreover, Garcia rued that, in the outright purchase deal, the city government must shoulder anywhere upwards of P100 million in “hidden” costs.

For instance, the city agreed to spend for the road network in that 10-hectare property that Filinvest Land should already own by itself, meaning, without the city taking a centavo of the future earnings.

As for the remaining 40 hectares in the supposed joint venture, the original agreement—as I said—required the company to remit the money to the city in three years. Not anymore! The payment period was stretched to seven years.

To top it all, in the new deal, Filinvest Land does not have to worry about “penalty” in case of default.

Let us say, for whatever reason, somebody in Filinvest Land has a bad day, and the company suddenly decides to stop remitting the money to the city for the 40-hectare portion. Well, tough luck! It can just say that it will try harder next year. No penalty, boss, no penalty!

Besides, the company already owns the 10.6 hectares, which it can thus prioritize in the development—and marketing, of course.

Here is the Garcia bomb: Filinvest Land already holds the title to 2 hectares of those 10 hectares.

Did Filinvest Land already make money out of those 2 hectares, leaving the city out of the picture? Nobody knows.

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AND IT GETS even better, ladies and gentlemen, because the city now allows Filinvest Land to change—on its own, meaning, without any approval by the city—the supposed “master development plan” for the remaining 40 hectares in the joint venture.

I mean, under such a term, the company can just put up shacks in the supposed “business district,” and there is not much the city can do about it either.

Filinvest Land, by the way, has yet to submit the master plan.

To me, it’s a big surprise, because the Filinvest group became famous in the 1990s for getting the government’s stock farm in Alabang (now the Filinvest City), even beating the Ayala group, mainly on the strength of a some computer generated drawings of a master plan.

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REPORTEDLY, in his privilege speech, Garcia offered some legal issues to scuttle the deal—i.e., it was illegal.

First, it was done without the authority of Congress. Second, it gave Filinvest titles to the land even without paying for them. Third, it circumvents the government’s rules on bidding for projects.

And Garcia cites a Supreme Court ruling, one that finally decided against Piatco in the controversial Naia Terminal III project, saying that the parties in an agreement may not substantially depart from the original terms of the bid.

Garcia pointed out that the changes in the agreement gave the advantage to Filinvest.

And what can the people of Cebu City do about this stinking deal? Well, nothing!

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THE PLOT GETS thicker in the “tax evasion” case of the BIR against a huge real estate company involving a condo project in Makati.

As we reported earlier, the project was stopped due to the case. It seems that the real estate company forgot to pay for the capital gains tax. The company and the previous owner of lot used a scheme to take advantage of loophole in the capital gains tax rule.

Anyway, the original capital gains tax was supposed to be about P40 million.

Our info is that the penalty has been adding up all this time, and the actual amount in the BIR case must be somewhere over P500 million.

Here is more: The BIR cannot enter into a compromise in such a case. You know—the company can just perhaps pay for the tax plus penalty, and everything is soon forgotten. No, way!

It is a criminal case, being a tax fraud case. In this case, it is jail for the offender!

But then again, who in this country has been jailed for tax evasion?