[ manilastandardtoday.com ] April 26, 2010
Questioning the legality of their eviction from their campus in Fort Bonifacio, officials of the Philippine Public Safety College have petitioned a Taguig court to nullify the joint venture between the Bases Conversion Development Authority and a consortium led by Megaworld Corp. to develop the vacated government property.
The college, a training ground of the police along with the fire and jail bureaus, said the Aug. 2008 deal involving also the National Police Commission was a transaction disadvantageous to the government.
“At a conservative estimate, the seven-hectare property is worth P20-billion and the government stands to gain less than P500 million over the next 50 years in this joint venture,” said PPSC vice president Rogelio Asignado.
Joining him in the petition to the Taguig Regional Trial Court are Supt. Gerardo Ulanday; lawyer Ernesto Pagdanganan, chief of the Inspectorate and Legal Office of the PPSC; Retired Brig. General Michelangelo Siscar, PPSC-accredited lecturer; Instructor II Pacifico Talplacido; and lawyer Emmanuel Tiu Santos, chairman and chief executive of International Academy of Management and Economics.
Named respondents were Napolcom, BCDA, Megaworld Corp., Empire East Land Holdings, and First Centro Inc.
The petitioners said the PPSC had been legally occupying the property on Lawton St., Fort Bonifacio since 1993 under the Department of Interior and Local Government Act through Circular 93-28, vesting the school possessory rights.
But on March 27, 1998, then President Fidel Ramos issued Proclamation 1187 granting ownership of the property to Napolcom despite the existing law, the petition said.
The property was later placed under the BCDA administration and development through Proclamation 1356 issued by President Gloria Arroyo on Aug. 13, 2007.
Asignado and his colleagues said the Palace measure “was only made known, albeit in an unofficial manner, to the PPSC sometime in September 2008.”
The petition noted further that the deal of BCDA, Megaworld-led consortium, and Napolcom was communicated to PPSC in November 2008.
As stipulated, the 7.1 hectare property “shall be developed under the vision of a seamless, integrated, world-class development within Bonifacio Global City.”
In exchange for the right to possess the property and gain profit from developing it, Napolcom will obtain 2,000 square meters for office space in a portion of the lot and an office building with an area of 24,995 sq. meters in Quezon City.
The joint venture would last for at least 50 years, or “for such longer period as may be allowed by law.”
Megaworld has also lined up a 600-unit condominium building near the proposed Quezon City Napolcom building to be sold for not more than P800,000 per unit to Napolcom and DILG beneficiaries.
With the approval of the deal, DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno sent a Notice to Vacate to the PPSC on Aug. 17, 2009, directing the school to leave by month’s end.
Amid the protests of the PPSC officials and employees, the DILG went on with the demolition on Oct. 28, Dec. 12, 13, and 15.
Asignado and his co-petitioners said the leadership “deliberately failed to perform his most solemn duty to protect the interests” of the school.
“As chairman of the PPSC Board of Trustees, the least that Secretary Puno could have done is to ensure that the PPSC had a suitable permanent relocation site comparable in size and with training facilities in the present PPSC campus,” said the petition.
“It should be noted that these demolitions were done absent any clearance from the Commission on Audit in relation to the demolition of government properties nor any legal authority authorizing such demolition activities.”
The DILG proposed the transfer of PPSC to E-Commerce Plaza in Libis, Quezon City and the Local Government Academy to Los Banos, Laguna.
Asignado’s group said the building was unsuited for training while the LGA relocation could only take in 60 students versus 800 to 900 enrolees of the PPSC’s National Police College and National Forensic Science and Training Institute.
PPSC was ordered instead to move to PET Plans Tower on Edsa, Guadalupe, Makati but the city building official found it unfit for use. forcing the school to its present site at PPCI Building in McKinley Hill, Taguig City.
“This is also temporary with a limited time period. Megaworld offered the same as free of rent for only three months, except utility fees. Thereafter, the PPSC will shoulder the rent,” the petition stated. Ferdinand Fabella
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