Run after Sobrepeña group, BCDA tells John Hay investors
The state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority has urged locators at Camp John Hay to run after Camp John Hay Development Corp. to protect their investments in the former US military base.
BCDA made the call amid the ongoing transition at Camp John Hay, which the Sobrepeña-led company had been ordered to vacate.
It was also directed to turn over all the buildings and facilities to the BCDA.
BCDA also reached out to Camp John Hay locators and sub-lesses in response to reports that CJHDevCo had been saying it was the BCDA that should honor the contracts covering their investments in Camp John Hay.
“Contrary to what the CJHDevCo has claimed, the BCDA is not privy to the contracts, so how could the BCDA honor them?,” stressed BCDA head for legal services Peter Paul Andrew T. Flores.
Flores claimed that as early as August 2011, the BCDA through the John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC), had requested from CJHDevCo copies of all the contracts and other relevant documents related to the development of all residential homes, estates and condotels within the leased area of Camp John Hay.
CJHDevCo refused, however.
Flores cited the letter of CJHDevCo COO Alfredo R. Yniguez III to JHMC president and CEO Jamie Eloise Agbayani in November 2011. It stated: “Owing to the nature of all these contracts which outline sensitive and confidential commercial, contractual and financial information, and which are not to be disclosed to anyone without the express written authorization of the parties involved, we regret to inform you that CJHDevCo is under no clear obligation to furnish JHMC such copies.”
This, according to Flores, was proof that CJHDevCo concealed the contracts of the sub-lessees and sub-locators from BCDA and its management arm in Camp John Hay, the JHMC.
This made CJHDevCo liable to the sub-lessees and sub-locators, he added.
Flores thus called on these stakeholders not to accept the legal services being offered by CJHDevCo.
The BCDA claimed that CJHDevCo was doing this “to evade liability and not be sued by the sub-lessees, sub-locators and buyers.”
BCDA president and CEO Arnel Paciano D. Casanova earlier urged buyers to lay their rightful claim on the P1.42 billion that the CJHDevCo would receive from the agency, by virtue of a decision issued by the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. (PDRCI).
This represented the lease payments of CJHDevCo to BCDA.
Since CJHDevCo would be refunded the entire amount it paid to the BCDA, the Sobrepeña-led firm should then also refund buyers and sub-lessees within Camp John Hay.
However, there seems to be no action on the side of CJHDevCo to implement a refund, Casanova claimed.
“The last thing we want to happen is for (the locators and buyers’) contracts to be a worthless piece of paper like what happened with the College Assurance Plan,” Casanova had said.
In the same decision, the PRDCI also ordered CJHDevCo “to vacate the leased premises and promptly deliver the leased property, inclusive of all new constructions and permanent improvements introduced during the term of the lease as reckoned from the execution of the original lease agreement to respondent [BCDA] in good and tenantable condition in all respects, reasonable wear and tear excepted.”
