BY DENNIS GADIL
[ Malaya.com.ph ] March 2, 2010
Parcels of land with a total value of P172.34 million have been added to the privatization basket of the government as it intensifies disposal of assets ahead of election day to plug a programmed deficit of P293 billion.
The Privatization and Management Office (PMO), the government’s disposal unit, is unloading the "not so prime" lots during a public auction from March 10 to March 18 at its Makati City office.
The lots are registered under seven companies either owned or taken over by the national government.
Three lots are in Luzon. The first, registered in the name of Asialand Development Corp. in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan, is worth P9.6 million. The second, owned by United Cathay Industries Inc. in San Mateo, Rizal, is worth P3 million. The third, owned by Unisol Industries and Manufacturing Corp in Calamba City, Laguna, is worth P114.5 million.
In Mindanao, property owned by Menzi Development Corp. in Talakag, Bukidnon, is worth P1.7 million and lots by Sta. Clara Lumber Inc. in Zamboanga City and Davao del Norte have a combined worth of P1.34 million.
A 2,375-square meter lot in Iloilo City belonging to Panay Railways Inc is being sold for P19 million.
A lock-stock-and-barrel sale of assets of Philippine Cotton Corp. (PCC), including four parcels of land with an area of 46,600 sq.m., office and factory buildings, machinery, and transportation equipment, located in San Fabian, Pangasinan, is valued at P23.2 million.
PCC’s warehouses, however, will be separately bid out for lease contracts at P54,000 a month.
The Laguna property of Unisol tops the list as the biggest parcel of lot on the auction bloc, having an area of 143,194 sq.m., followed by the property of Menzi measuring 116,962 sq.m.
Unisol, which used to be listed among the 100 biggest companies registered with the Board of Investments, was into sportswear manufacturing, while Menzi was engaged in the production of cacao and mandarin oranges.
The parcels of land join three big-ticket assets that government tried dispose off last year but are now set for disposal during the first quarter.
These are the Food Terminal Inc. complex in Taguig City worth P10 billion to P12 billion, the 60 percent stake in PNOC-EC worth P12 billion to P14 billion and the lease and development of Fujimi property in Tokyo for P3 billion to P5 billion.
The government hopes to raise P30 billion from privatization this year after failing to dispose the three assets last year due to adverse market condition.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves earlier said they hoped to unload the items during the first quarter and not later than the first semester.
The PMO, the successor of the Asset Privatization Trust, ended 2009 with a privatization take of P500 million, representing almost half of the full-year privatization haul of P1.39 billion.
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