09/08/2008 [ tribune.net.ph ]
The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has come under fire anew from the House of Representatives for leasing a golf course to a firm headed by a nephew of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago despite the golf course’s being the subject of a court litigation.
In addition, the terms and conditions of the lease contract with Santiago’s nephew allegedly were grossly disadvantageous to government.
In an interview, Northern Samar Rep. Emil Ong said he had asked Hanafil Golf and Tour Inc., headed by Benjamin John Defensor III, reportedly the son of retired armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Benjamin Defensor, to make public the judicial issues that are pending before the Supreme Court and other branches of the judiciary before selling playing rights and other golf club shares to the public.
At the same time, Ong, vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations and a member of the committee on legislative oversight, said golf aficionados and prospective investors should be cautioned that the legal controversies over the operation of the golf course have not yet been settled, adding there exists a good probability that the apparent one-sided lease agreement between the SBMA and Hanafil may be rescinded.
SBMA and its officials, headed by Admin. Armand Arreza and Chairman Feliciano Salonga, are facing criminal and civil suits for allegedly forcibly evicting officials of the Universal International Group (UIG) of Taiwan as operators of the Subic Bay Golf Course. Graft charges have also been filed against them.
During a recent hearing of the Committee on legislative oversight headed by Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, Ong presented the “confidential” lease and development agreement between Arreza and Defensor.
Defensor is the president and chief executive officer of Hanafil, a newly registered firm. He owns 0.08 percent of the total shares of the company while his South Korean partners own 87 percent.
The House panel has been conducting an inquiry into the SBMA’s unlawful eviction and unfair treatment of UIG officials who were forcibly ejected last year for alleged non-payment of rental amounting to P14 million.
The UIG, which invested over P1 billion to develop the golf course, had contested the total rental arrears demanded by SBMA, saying its late payment amounted only to P10 million.
Jack Hu, president of UIG, told lawmakers that the entry of South Koreans to the already developed Binictican golf course was Arreza’s primary motive in driving them out.
“The evicted lessees were telling us the truth all along. Arreza had indeed been negotiating with the South Koreans for the takeover of the golf course,” Ong told reporters after the hearing.
The lawmaker stressed that Arreza’s public denials of Hu’s complaint were belied with the SBMA official’s signing of the lease contract with Hanafil last June.
Ong said unlike UIG, Hanafil was given a one-year grace period from payment of the agreed monthly lease payments to allow the South Korean firm time to develop the golf course.
“This is quite unfair for the government considering that the golf course is already fully developed as a result of the P1-billion investment that UIG poured into the project,” Ong pointed out.
He said a full review of the contract will also be initiated by the oversight panel. Charlie V. Manalo
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