A long running “low intensity conflict” within the Subic Bay freeport—specifically over control of the special economic zone’s seaports and some properties—are set to explode into the open and expose an even longer running rivalry between two port operating groups.
And it’s an issue that goes all the way back to 2009 when Harbor Center Port Terminal Inc. submitted an unsolicited proposal to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) for a joint venture to develop and operate seaports in the former US Navy base.
SBMA gave the green light to this proposal, signing a deal with Harbor Center for a P200-million three-year investment commitment (down from the original P6.4 billion that the firm promised, according to the deal’s critics).
No sooner were the papers signed when other parties made their opposition to the deal known, and the National Economic and Development Authority and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel expressed their reservations in 2011.
Harbor Center asked an Olongapo Regional Trial Court to compel SBMA to issue a notice of award and proceed with the deal, so its critics went to the Court of Appeals to dismiss Harbor Center’s case, which it did.
Not to be deterred, Harbor Center went to the Supreme Court and asked it to reverse the Court of Appeals’ decision, which the High Tribunal did in late 2021. But in these high stakes corporate wars where billions upon billions of pesos are up for grabs, neither side is willing to raise the white flag, so Harbor Center’s opponents are now asking that the case be heard by the Supreme Court en banc—that is, all the justices of the high tribunal and not just those of one division.
The argument of Harbor Center’s opponents, of course, is that this case is so important as to have broad implications on the economic future of the Subic Bay freeport and several logistics firms located in it if Harbor Center becomes the exclusive port operator.
The question now is this: Will this case be considered important enough to be taken up by the entire Supreme Court or will the high Tribunal’s earlier decision stand?
And perhaps, equally important to answer is this: Who is opposing Harbor Center apart from the locators within the Subic freeport? Clue: these two camps started out as business rivals… became business allies (for a time being, at least)… and now seem to be rivals again.