BCDA position deprives gov’t P5B in revenue
The Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevco) has turned the tables on the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) as it slammed the agency for the more than P5 billion in foregone revenues and other losses that the government has been incurring since 2011.
Robert John L. Sobrepeña, chair and CEO of CJHDevco, said in a briefing last week that the BCDA’s rejection of a restructuring agreement in 2011 had shortchanged not only the government, but also the public and the private sector, as this had so far resulted in at least P5 billion worth of foregone lease income.
He said that had the BCDA accepted the third restructuring offer in late 2011, CJHDevco would have paid an upfront P500 million, P3.3 billion over a 10-year period and P150 million in rentals yearly until 2046.
The rejection of the offer, CJHDevco said, also deprived Baguio City of its 25-percent share in the rentals. “Add to that the economic gains and the jobs that could have been generated in the past three years,” Sobrepeña stressed.
For that period alone, the CJHDevco could have easily put up 1,000 additional rooms within Camp John Hay.
“BCDA lost P3.3 billion in what could have been receivables for the development authority had it accepted the last revised restructured agreement of CJHDevco; P1.4 billion of paid lease rentals that it will now have to return to CJHDevco due to the ruling of an arbitration court; and P500 million that was offered to BCDA by CJHDevco as initial payment for a proposed restructuring agreement in 2011, totaling P5.2 billion,” a CJHDevco showed.
“This does not include the P150 million annual lease rentals, amounting to P450 million for three years since 2012 that BCDA would have received had Casanova not insisted on refusing every proposal from CJHDevco. Some 25 percent of (this) would have gone to the City of Baguio as (its) share in the annual rent for the development of Camp John Hay,” it said.
Sobrepeña also stressed that the lease contracts of the locators in Camp John Hay should be honored by the BCDA. This, he said, was based on the seven-page decision penned by Cecila Corazon Dulay-Archog, presiding judge of the Baguio Regional Trial Court Branch 6, which confirmed the final award by the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. (PDRCI).
The PDRCI decision released in February this year had ordered BCDA to return to CJHDevco P1.4 billion in rentals and had absolved the Sobrepeña-led firm of the supposed P3.3 billion worth of unpaid arrears being claimed by the state agency.
At the same time, CJHDevco was directed to vacate Camp John Hay and turn it over to the BCDA. The locators and other affected stakeholders are to be governed by existing laws on obligations and contracts, which meant that the investments made by these parties are rightfully protected and should be honored by the BCDA, Sobrepeña said, quoting a statement of the judge.
The decision of the judge “confirms our legal position that the arbitral award did not carry with it the order for our locators, sub-lessees, unit owners, lot owners and golf club members to vacate as proposed by the BCDA,” Sobrepeña said. Amy R. Remo
