The government is the biggest property company in the country, but like it or not, since the business involves tons of money, its real estate agents more often than not fall into controversial deals.
Two of those agents are state-owned corporations Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), which turns former military bases into commercial ventures, and Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA), the former PEA, which approves all land reclamation projects in the country.
Just last month, for instance, the BCDA was again poised to deploy heavily armed men, sometimes known as “goons,” for an apparent forcible takeover of the 247-hectare Camp John Hay economic zone in Baguio City.
It seemed that the BCDA wanted to enforce a recent ruling on its long-running dispute with the project proponent, Camp John Hay Development Corp., or CJHDC, which ironically was the BCDA’s joint venture partner for the past 20 years.
Since the BCDA and CJHDC had conflicting claims on the Baguio project, the courts ordered them in 2005 to go into arbitration before the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc., or PDRCI.
Last month, after 10 years, the center ruled that CJHDC must vacate Camp John Hay, and so the BCDA apparently thought it wise to implement the ruling by itself right away, preferably through a forcible takeover with goons.
Based on reports in Baguio-based newspaper Morning Sun, the BCDA tried to occupy the economic zone at night—i.e. non office hours—with the threat of using heavily armed men.
The BCDA claimed that, because of the arbitration ruling, it could simply throw into the wastebasket all “contracts” of the locators in the economic zone.
It did not matter to the BCDA that the PDRCI also ruled that, actually, it was the BCDA that violated the joint venture agreement with CJHDC and that the BCDA must pay CJHDC some P1.4 billion in damages.
The PDRCI ruling also needed another court procedure: That is the Regional Trial Court must confirm, on the one hand, the award of P1.4 billion to CJHDC, and on the other, the termination of the joint venture agreement.
Thus CJHDC claimed that, until then, while it should wait for the RTC confirmation and the BCDA payment of the P1.4 billion, the CJHDC would have to continue running the day-to-day affairs in the economic zone.
But the BCDA ruled on its own that all debts were off, including the P1.4 billion award for damages set by the arbitration center, and so it did not have to cough up such a huge amount, perhaps because the BCDA would have to scamper for it.
For the people in this agency, the BCDA must take over the project right away!
Now, the BCDA had a record of using heavily armed men to implement the whims and wishes of its boss, Arnel Casanova, who was said to have been “recommended” by a huge real estate company for the position under the Aquino (Part II) administration.
About two years ago, the same BCDA used the same commando-like tactic to harass the SM group in its Aura mall project at the Bonifacio Global City by closing down the roads around the mall.
Earlier in 2012, the BCDA also used heavily armed personnel to try to demolish the homes of retired and active military officers and soldiers in areas of Fort Bonifacio were not even under the BCDA.
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Anyway, the controversial former PEA, now known as PRA, also got embroiled in a controversy, involving some 41 hectares of reclaimed land in Manila Bay on Roxas Blvd., right there at the entrance of the Cavite coastal expressway.
A consumer advocate group just filed “plunder” cases in the Office of the Ombudsman against the present officials of PRA, plus the former officials of PEA, and the officers of a private firm called Manila Bay Development Corp., or MBDC.
It was none other than the United Filipino Consumers and Commuters (UFCC), headed by consumerism activist Rodolfo Javellana, who was also behind the Water for All Refund Movement’s (WARM) which fought the water rate hikes imposed by Manila Water and Maynilad.
In 1988, as it turned out, during the Tita Cory administration, the mother of our present leader, Benigno Simeon a.k.a. BS, the PEA (now PRA) sold some 41 hectares of the MBDC at a bargain price of P420 million—or only P1,100 per square meter.
Now, part of the deal was the promise made by MBDC to develop the property fully within five years from the date of the sale—or by 1993.
Under the agreement, MBDC was supposed to finish the “horizontal” development work—i.e. earth moving, road construction and such—within two years.
The “vertical” development—i.e. the malls and the office buildings and such—would have to be at least 60 percent completed after five years.
Again, that should have been done by 1993, or way before the Asian financial crisis of 1997, which exposed the real estate bubble in the Philippines at that time, causing property companies to abandon various projects en masse.
Here is the thing: The group of Javellana noted that no semblance of development could be seen in the 41 hectare area after 27 years of the controversial PEA sale to the private group, MBDC.
At a conservative price of P100,000 per sqm, the property would now be worth more than P40 billion—again, P40 billion—compared to the P420 million price given by the PEA to MBDC.
The Javellana group noted that, even without any effort or any semblance of investment done by the MBDC, the 41-hectare government property has become a hot area, particularly with the construction of the expressway and the establishment of the Entertainment City nearby, for instance.
Now, the group has filed charges against former PEA officials and present PRA officials for doing nothing to implement the original agreement, particularly the condition that MBDC should develop the property within five years—or by 1993.
Thus the group was talking about “conspiracy” to cheat the Filipino people, involving those responsible for the deal, namely officials of the PEA and the PRA, plus the businessmen behind MBDC.
In other words, it should have also been an “all-bets-were-off” arrangement between the PEA and MBDC as early as 1993, which was more than 20 years ago.
And yet nothing seemed to happen still.