GSIS wants restaurant chain Gloria Maris evicted from prime Pasay property

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) wants popular Chinese food chain Gloria Maris Shark’s Fin Restaurant evicted from its Pasay home, claiming it has been staying there for years sans a valid contract.

Documents obtained by Inquirer showed the ejectment case filed by the GSIS before the Pasay City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 47 last June 8 also sought “reasonable compensation of P260,000 a month, reckoned from the time of demand up to the time that the subject property is vacated and turned over.” GSIS alleged the restaurant’s continued use of the property even as the lease expired in 2010.

The GSIS claimed that Gloria Maris, located within the CCP Complex in Pasay City, “failed to vacate it despite receipt of the GSIS’s demand letter.” It said the restaurant chain had “no right to continue occupying the subject property.”

The pension fund also sought payment from Gloria Maris for P500,000 worth of litigation and attorney’s fees that the GSIS had incurred.

According to the GSIS, it entered into a contract of lease with the restaurant for a 2,592-square meter property during the period Jan. 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2007, with monthly rental of P200,000.

The contract was not renewed, but GSIS allowed the restaurant to “continue occupying the premises on a month-to-month rental basis to allow it sufficient time to relocate.”

In two separate letters, Gloria Maris officials had sought to renew the lease contract from 2009 until 2011 and in 2014.

But the GSIS said that since it had other plans for the property, it informed the restaurant it was no longer renewing the lease contract.

In 2010, the GSIS entered into a joint venture with Megaworld Corp. to build a condominium on the same property occupied by Gloria Maris, giving the restaurant until June 30 that year to turn it over.

But Gloria Maris instead filed before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court a temporary restraining order seeking extension of the month-to-month lease for at least five years.

In 2015, the Pasay court dismissed the complaint, forcing Gloria Maris to file a motion for reconsideration before the Court of Appeals.

“Evidently, Gloria Maris’ insistence on its [nonexistent] right to fix a longer lease term was a mere ploy to continue usurping the property to the extreme prejudice of the GSIS. To date, it has already been more than 10 years from the time the contract of lease expired on Dec. 31, 2007; and almost eight years since the month-to-month lease was terminated,” the GSIS said.

“Gloria Maris was very much aware that its initial lease over the GSIS’s property had already expired as it asked the latter several times for the renewal of said lease,” the GSIS noted.

“Even as the GSIS denied Gloria Maris’ requests for extension of lease, the periods of extension requested have in fact already been utilized and elapsed due to the pendency of this case brought by the latter. Thus, Gloria Maris had fully made use of the period (it previously requested for from the GSIS) to continuously occupy the property and profitably conduct its restaurant business to the prejudice of the GSIS. There is now no equitable reason for it to continue holding on to the GSIS property,” according to the GSIS.

Last March 6, the GSIS sent Gloria Maris another demand letter asking the restaurant to vacate and surrender the property to the pension fund within 30 days.

GSIS also earlier ordered Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila to vacate two Pasay lots it was allegedly occupying illegally.