ALI refocuses Negros resources on Talisay City project

BACOLOD CITY—The business plan of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) no longer includes the P6-billion development of the 7.7-hectare provincial government property in Bacolod City, ALI senior vice president Emilio Tumbocon said.

“We have been waiting for over a year. Our business cannot operate in an environment of uncertainty,” Tumbocon told the Inquirer. He was referring to the delay of about 14 months in the issuance of a ruling by the Commission on Audit on the contracts for the sale and lease of the Capitol property to ALI and the pending lawsuit filed by SM Prime Holdings Inc. against provincial government officials for not being awarded the project.

He explained that as a public listed company, they owed it to their shareholders to operate in an environment of certainty, not in an environment of uncertainty. “It’s not good business,” Tumbocon added.

He, however, stressed that ALI was still investing in Negros Occidental. ALI is refocusing its resources to accelerate the development of a mixed-use community at Ayala North Point in Talisay City, he said.

The P7-billion, 200-hectare Ayala North Point development would include a subdivision, a mall with a supermarket and business process outsourcing facilities, Tumbocon said.

Tumbocon was attending the groundbreaking on Thursday last week of the Metro hypermarket at the Ayala Mall that is being constructed in the North Point Talisay.

The company was also studying the feasibility of building a hotel in the area, according to Tumbocon.

However, the Ayala North Point development would not include a convention center, which the company proposed for the Capitol property, because it would not be viable since Talisay City was just a township suburb of Bacolod, he explained.

Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., who was at the groundbreaking rites, said the provincial government would lose the money it had expected from the rental and sale of its 7.7-hectare property to ALI. But at least the firm would still be investing its money in Negros Occidental, he added.