Sobrepeña loses John Hay to BCDA

THE STATE-RUN Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) has urged locators at Camp John Hay to coordinate with the agency as their existing contracts were invalidated by a Feb. 11 ruling that the Sobrepeña group must vacate the former US military facility.

“The right of locators emanates from their original lease agreement with CJHDevco [CJH Development Corp.], whose right to operate Camp John Hay was rescinded, so the locators’ right was also put into question. They [locators] need to coordinate with BCDA,” the agency’s president and chief executive, Arnel Paciano D. Casanova, told a press briefing Friday.

Last Wednesday, the arbitration tribunal on the case between BCDA and CJHDevco issued a decision wherein the latter was “ordered 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 the state-run agency in charge of disposing former military bases.

Even as the BCDA still awaits the issuance of the judicial confirmation for the sake of “formality,” Casanova said CJHDevco must immediately turn over Camp John Hay.

“CJHDevco ceases to be the possessor of Camp John Hay economic zone. It has no authority anymore to do business or transact with locators in the area,” the BCDA official pointed out.

According to John Hay Special Economic Zone president and chief executive Jamie Eloise M. Agbayani, 118 business enterprises such as restaurants, retail shops and business process outsourcing or BPO firms, mostly sub-lessees, operate within the 625-hectare property.

There are also 85 residential structures owned by private individuals who had paid CJHDevco for a 50-year contract even as the earlier deal between the Sobrepeñas and BCDA were for only an initial 25 years, renewable for another 25 years, Agbayani disclosed.

“The number of locators is just an estimate because CJHDevco has not reported to us,” she said.

As soon as BCDA takes over Camp John Hay, it would conduct a complete physical and legal audit of the facilities, Casanova said.